I'm Still Waiting
by teddystarsconverse39
Summary: How many years has it been?  Two? Five? Eight? I can't remember, what I do remember is that I have been in love with him for a very long time, and I don't think that I will or can ever give up these feelings for him.  That's why, I will keep waiting.
1. Prologue

**Hey everyone! So, I really enjoyed writing my very first fanfiction, and I've really into writing lately. I've always wanted to write fanfiction forever, but never had the chance, because I was always way too busy, but now I'm making time to carry out some of my writing. So, here is another fanfiction, this one is something that I would actually like to make into a story, but for now, I'm happy to have this as a fanfiction. This is a Sasu x Saku fanfic, I know that my other fanfic was Ita x Saku, but to tell you the truth, I'm kinda in love with both pairings (their both a tie in my book) so a lot of anymore fanfictions will either be Sasu x Saku or Ita x Saku. I do hope that all of you enjoy my new fanfiction!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if I did...my life would literally be complete. I do own this story line though!**

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><p>Prologue<p>

"That's the one sixth one that you rejected you know," the feminine voice of a teenager said to the other teenage girl next to her. The girl did not respond to her best friend's statement, rather she kept walking away from the boy that she had just rejected. Her face hide behind her long hair and it faced downward. She walked past all of the stores and walked back straight to her car with her best friend following right behind her. "Are you listening to me?" angrily spoke her best friend. She walked to the girl's car and grabbed the keys before she could escape from the reality of what was happening. "Hey! Are you really going to run away? Huh? Answer me! Sakura!"

The girl named Sakura finally looked up at her best friend. Sakura had glossy, cotton candy pink hair. It was in a simple braid that went over her left shoulder, nothing too broad, but very plain. Her eyes shined as bright as emeralds, for the green color was so expressive upon her face, it gave away the heart on her sleeve. Her nose was not too large, nor too small; her lips not many would be able to tell were small, but pouty. Her complexion was neither so tan, nor so pale, it was a healthy color. The physique of her body was very small, no taller than five feet, slim, and no fat. This girl, Sakura Haruno, had nothing extraordinary about herself other than her unique facial features. She was a plain individual, nothing that would stand out in a crowd.

Sakura looked at her best friend that patiently waited for her to respond to her previous yelling. Her best friend, Ino Yamanaka, sternly looked at Sakura straight in the eye. Ino's blue eyes penetrated through the shy walls that Sakura put up around herself. Finally, Sakura let out a deep sigh and spoke in a soft voice, "Ino, please. Can we…talk about it in the car…please?"

Ino kept staring straight at Sakura, until she released her own sigh and handed Sakura back her keys. Once the keys were in Sakura's rightful possession, both of the girls stepped back into the four-door 2007 Jeep, and drove back to Ino's home. They sat in silence for about ten seconds until Ino grew so frustrated with what had just happened, she shrieked in frustration.

"I don't get you! I mean, you say you would love to have a boyfriend, and whenever a guy finally works up the courage to ask you out on your FIRST date, you turn them down!" growled Ino.

Sakura kept driving in silence, and let Ino rant for a bit before she could give her input. "I mean, sure, he's definitely not the ideal boyfriend, but I mean he really likes you! He goes to all of the effort to surprise you, do romantic things for you, and everything else in the world to make you happy, and when he finally comes out with the truth of that he likes you, you reject him! I just don't get you! Argh! Do you know how mad you make me? I mean, if I was in your position every year, then I would jump at the chance to have a guy as sweet and romantic as every guy that has ever confessed to you. I mean really, just take a chance on someone why don't you? You have never had an 'official' boyfriend, been on your first date, hell you haven't even had your first kiss yet! I mean come on! This is so not healthy for a grown seventeen year old. You should be out partying it up, flirting wherever and whenever, going on dates, and so many other teenage things. Instead, all you do is homework, study, dance, and work. Argh! Why can't you just try?"

Ino looked like she wanted to say so much more, but ended her rant and continued to screech in frustration at her best friend. Sakura never once looked at Ino; her eyes kept on the road. But, deep down inside, Sakura knew that her friend was right, maybe not about the partying or the constant flirting, but about her trying.

The two of them continued to sit in silence on the car ride back to Ino's home. Soon enough, Ino's two-story home appeared just around the corner. Sakura parked in front of Ino's house, and turned off her car. Neither of the two friends moved. They sat in silence, until a small whimpering could be heard coming from the driver's side. Sakura's body shook in small shudders as she let loose all of the tears she had been holding back since the confession from the boy at the mall. She curled her body up onto the driver's seat and cried away the stress of the rejection she just gave him. Ino sat in the passenger seat looking at her friend sympathetically. Ino cared for Sakura, really she did. She just wants Sakura to find a guy that can treat her the way she deserves to be treated. Sakura was just too kind-hearted and fragile to be handed over to anyone; Ino knew that, hell, everyone knew that.

Soon enough, Sakura's tears came to an end, and only small hiccups and few tears leaked from her eyes. "Why can't you just try to love the guys that confess to you?" asked Ino. "There's no harm in that…is there?"

"How…how can I just…try to fall in love with some guy?" questioned Sakura. Ino grew quiet after hearing those words from Sakura.

"I can't just…fall in love with someone right after they confess to me. It just doesn't work like that. "

"How do you know?" asked Ino. "You've never in your life tried love at all. Sure, you have crushes on guys, and you've dated one guy, ONE GUY! A guy who totally and completely broke you, and don't say he didn't because I know he did, I was there, remember?"

Sakura stayed quiet. Ino looked at Sakura long and hard. "You're not still waiting are you?" questioned Ino in disbelief.

Ino's question made Sakura turn away in embarrassment and shame, but that action told Ino everything she needed to know. "Sakura, it's your Senior year, our last school year together with all of our friends and classmates together. No offense Sakura, but I don't think it'll happen."

"You're right" replied Sakura. "It most likely will never happen, but I can still dream, can't I?"

Ino stared at Sakura's weak smile upon her face. "Yeah, you can dream alright, but don't let this "dream" of yours hold you back! Come on girl, it's our last year together, and if he's not gonna make the first move now, then you better do something about it." Ino told Sakura firmly.

As her best friend, Ino knew Sakura was shy, especially when it came to the boys that she liked, but she knew that she was going to get Sakura a chance with this guy that she has been crushing on for well….forever! "Alright Sakura, this is your last chance. So you better do something about him or find someone else, okay? Because I am not going to spend our Senior year letting you pine after him, got it?" Ino was going to get Sakura's dream guy to notice her one way or another, and if it meant drastic measures, then so be it. Sakura was going to somehow, some way going to live out her dream, so Sasuke Uchiha…you better be looking.

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><p><strong>I hope that you have enjoyed my prologue. I'm going to try to get my first chapter up today also, I already have three pages, so wish me luck!<strong>

**As much as I love being favorited as an author or my fanfic being favored, I also enjoy reviews, so please review!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone! I'm re-uploading this fanfic because I made a lot of editing and revisions to it. I hope that you enjoy!****P.S. If you have already read this fanfic, please reread because there are a few revisions and grammar corrections that I have made.  
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**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if I did...my life would literally be complete. I do own this story line though!**

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><p>Chapter 1<p>

The students of Konoha Gakuen were hustling about the hallways in the early morning before the beginning of the school week for its students and faculty. First years were wandering the halls already used to the high school setting. Second years were getting by peaceably without having to worry about first year jitters and third year exams. And third years were running rampart as they tried to finish their exams and applications for colleges.

As the morning rush of students still hustled and bustled about, a petite girl with bubblegum pink hair and emerald green eyes parked her jeep in the one of the parking lots, the lot closest to the front doors of Konoha Gakuen. The pinkette parked her jeep closest to the largest cherry blossom tree at the very end of one of the parking strips, and reached to grab her messenger bag from her passenger seat. The pinkette, Haruno Sakura, walked out of her jeep and went inside the school doors towards her locker. While others, such as first years, may mistake her as one of them, other students recognized the pinkette from all of their previous years as a second year, soon-to-be third year. Sakura went to her small shoe locker and changed into her indoor shoes.

"Hey Sakura!" yelled a brunette haired girl with her hair tied up in twin buns at the top of her head. Sakura smiled at her friend, "Hey Tenten, how goes it?"

"I'm good, just got done with early morning practice. What's up with you?" questioned Tenten as she also changed her shoes.

Sakura gave a small smile, typical Sakura, as happy-go-lucky as she was, she had a lot of times when she was shy, "Nothing much is going on. Which practice did you attend this morning?"

The thing about Tenten is that she is a total and complete tomboy. Sure, she knew how to dress like a girly girl and wore the uniform skirt, but she much rather prefer the comfortable clothes of her sweats, jeans, and t-shirts. In school, she was pretty much involved within every single sports team. She was on the girls' tennis team, girls' soccer team, girls' basketball team, girls' softball team, and the girls' lacrosse team. She loved her sports, and she was always active in them, "I had soccer practice this morning. Ugh, as much as I love to do sports, I really hate doing them in the morning, especially when I have to get clean all over again."

Sakura lightly laughed at Tenten's "distress," "Well you could always just go back to doing one sport, but I don't really think that's an option for you."

Tenten smiled a large, pearl white teeth smile, "You're right about that."

Both girls headed towards their respective classroom on the third floor of the school, "Yeah, thanks for waiting guys."

Both of the girls turned toward the voice behind them, and noticed their other friend at a shoe locker close to theirs. Subaku no Temari was another friend of Sakura and Tenten's, she had dirty blonde hair that was placed in four spiky ponytails. She was the same height as Tenten, both whom completely towered over the petite pinkette. Temari hurriedly put her shoes on and ran to catch up with her two friends, "Sorry about that Temari, we would have waited if we knew that you were right behind us," kindly spoke Sakura.

Temari joined the two girls, "Yeah, I know you would, but I thought I would have caught up with you by the time you guys were ready to leave the lockers."

Temari was also another girl who was really into sports, but she wasn't as involved as Tenten was. She and Tenten were both on the girls volleyball team and the girls softball team, "How was softball practice?" asked Tenten.

The dirty blonde shrugged, "Not bad, Anko wasn't too hard on us, but she did say that she wants to see you for practice after school today. She wants to talk about the upcoming game with the two of us."

Tenten nodded in response, "No problem, I wanted to talk strategy anyway." All three girls walked up the stairs towards their classroom, making small chit-chat.

Once the girls were on the third floor, Temari broke the small talk, "Can you guys believe that we have only a month and a half left until we're finally third years? I can't wait," resting her hands on the back of her head.

Both of the others girls nodded in understanding, "I'm super excited! We meet with our homeroom teachers in the first week of school too, so I'm excited to see what colleges I will be able to apply to," rationalized Sakura.

Tenten sighed, "Ugh! I don't want to think about all of the hard stuff in our third year. I wanna think about all of the fun stuff like leaving school early, and of the six classes we have, we have two free periods for whatever we want."

"You're right, being a third year will be fun, but we also have to be serious. We can't slack off any more than in our previous years." The more Sakura talked, the more that the other two girls became depressed from Sakura's speak of still working hard.

"Okay, enough your boring school talk and I swear I'm going to slap you Sakura," all three looked ahead of them and saw another familiar blonde girl with her hair in a high ponytail and another girl with midnight blue hair behind the blonde.

"But Ino, we should be concentrating on our future. It's an important time for all of us," softly spoke the midnight blue haired girl. Her name was Hyuuga Hinata, and she was probably the nicest, kindest, and most lovely person that you would ever meet in your entire life.

The second blonde, Yamanaka Ino, looked towards Hinata in friendly annoyance, "Hey, I thought that you were on my side Hinata."

All three girls laughed at the scene in front of them and approached the other two girls of their group, "Nope, sorry Ino, but Hinata's on my side. See she loves me!" teasingly said Sakura, as she wrapped her arms around Hinata sideways. Hinata laughed lightly at her friends.

They all headed into their classroom, and the three girls placed their belongings on their respective desks before all of the other girls congregated together at Sakura's. While the girls chatted over exciting future events that would happen as third years, Sakura stared out the window. Her desk was in the second to last row of the classroom and right next to the window, giving Sakura the perfect view of the outside world. While Sakura immersed herself within her thoughts and the girl talk going on, a boy walked into the classroom and headed to the desk right behind Sakura.

Hearing a backpack quietly plop on top of the desk behind her, Sakura felt her shoulders slightly tense. The chair made a small screeching sound against the tile floors, and the male body sat himself down. Completely oblivious to Sakura's tense demeanor, another male made a showy entrance into the classroom, "Good morning everyone! No need to fear, for Uzumaki Naruto is here!"

The students in the classroom and even some who were in the hallways glanced at the sunny blonde's cherry and loud attitude. The girls looked to see Naruto making dramatic bowing gestures to his imagery entourage, "Cut it out Naruto. Nobody cares, so stop making such a big deal out of it." Ino said.

Angry at being interrupted in the middle of his daydream, Naruto crossed his arms across his chest, "Oh yeah, what do you know? Just because you can't see my amazing awesomeness doesn't mean that others don't, right everyone."

The teenagers in the class slightly chuckled at Naruto's statement; while Naruto was a cool guy, he was still pretty annoying and didn't know when to stop showing off. "Man, can't you shut up for five minutes…it's still way too early in the morning for this."

Naruto turned towards a guy who had his head buried in his hands. Typical Nara Shikamaru, he always wanted peace and quiet so that he could get some sweet shut eye. "Just because you want to sleep doesn't mean that I can't speak as loud as I want."

"Ano…Naruto-kun, well…um" nervously asked Hinata. Hinata was twiddling her pointer fingers together and her face had a pretty pink blush sprinkling her cheeks. Her friends snickered a bit at their shy friend's obvious crush on the blonde.

Naruto turned his head towards her direction and Hinata jumped a bit at their eye contact. He smiled a huge smile at their direction, and poor Hinata could not have turned any redder…that is until, "Oy, shut up dobe."

Naruto lost his giant smile, and turned to glare at the boy behind Sakura's desk, "Hmph! Why don't you shut up, Sasuke-teme?"

The girls sighed at the normal morning routine for the past nine years going on, but a certain pink-haired girl gave her full attention to the said boy named 'Sasuke-teme.' She turned around in her desk to view him, Uchiha Sasuke, the boy that has had Sakura's heart ever since a very young age. He had flawless features, hell, he was flawless in the eyes of not only her, but many. His black hair was spiked up in the back, making it look like a chicken's butt. His skin was a pale white, but completely without flaws, and his onyx black orbs complemented his aristocratic features. He sat back in his seat with his hands in his pockets and his eyes closed in a calm aura.

Just the sight of seeing her heart's affection in front of her made Sakura's heart flutter, "Good morning, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke's eyes opened to acknowledge the greeting voice in front of him, and Sakura swears she had to fight down the slight blush that was coming upon her face, "Hn."

"This should not be bash Naruto day! Come on guys!" complained Naruto. He stomped towards his desk right next to Sasuke's and plopped himself down in his chair. "You! You should get that stick out of your ass and try to stop being Mr. King of the World over here!" Naruto pointed at Sasuke accusing him of whatever little problem he may have caused.

"Hn, who else is going to put you in your place?" spoke Sasuke in his low baritone voice.

"Anyone but you that's for sure!" Both boys looked towards each other and again their morning rivalry appeared, "Come on now you guys. It's early on a Monday morning, can't we just get along for once."

Sakura mediated between the two boys, but both still glared at the other until they turned away from each other. Sakura sighed at two of her oldest friends childish antics, but knew that there was nothing that could really be done between the two of them.

The bell rang, and Ino, Temari, and Tenten left to their own respective desks, while Sakura and Hinata stayed in the same area because of their seating arrangements next to Sasuke and Naruto. The class continued to chatter amongst themselves knowing that their morning teacher would be late. Hinata and Sakura continued their own talk amongst themselves, mostly what applications, tests, and other items they were getting together for colleges. Between their other three friends, Hinata and Sakura were the smarts ones of the group, so they were always prepared, "Ne, ne Sakura-chan, do you think that I could borrow your math homework? I completely forgot about it last night."

Sakura sighed, "Naruto, you've said that every day for the past years that we have known each other. As much as I want to help you out, why don't you just do your homework for once?"

Naruto laughed in nervousness, he didn't want to get his dear Sakura-chan made because when she was made, boy was she mad, "Oh come on Sakura-chan! I'll…I'll do whatever you want me to do for the rest of the week if you let me copy your homework, please!"

Naruto bowed his head and clapped his hands together, "Please Sakura-chan!" Sakura just sighed again, and reached for her math notebook, and threw it down on his desk, "Don't mess it up, okay?"

"Thanks Sakura-chan!"

Naruto went straight to work.

"You know," spoke up the voice behind Sakura. She turned around in her desk to give Sasuke her full attention, "If you keep babying him, then he's just going to keep using you for your homework, you know that right?"

Sakura stared at Sasuke then flushed a bit, "Well…eventually I feel bad for him, so there's no harm, right?"

Sasuke stared right back at her, "Tch, whatever. It's your own fault if he messes it up one day."

And Sasuke went back to slouching in his seat slightly with his hands resting behind his head, and his eyes closed. Sakura stared at him a bit before sighing again. She turned back in her seat and Hinata gave her a sympathetic look at the way Sasuke treated her.

They resumed their talk, until the front door of the classroom opened revealing a tall man in his late twenties. He had silver hair that defied gravity, an eye patch over his left eye, and a mysterious mask that covered his face. As he walked into the classroom, he had his nose buried into an orange book, that many students knew could not have been allowed at school, so how their teacher did it, they had no clue, "Good morning everyone! I'm sorry that I'm so late, you see there was this black cat that crossed my path so-"

He was cut off by a loud voice in the back of his classroom, "Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before Kakashi-sensei. Just get it over with, okay?"

Kakashi looked over his book and noticed Naruto pointing at him accusingly; he smiled underneath his mask, "Well Naruto, seeing as how you have no respect for your elders, how about we solve this in a professional manner."

He put down his book, and took out a stack of papers from his desk, "So…we'll solve this with a pop quiz!"

The class groaned and glared at Naruto, while Naruto only rubbed his head with apologies in every direction. Kakashi handed out the papers, and everyone started on their quiz, "Remember no cheating. This shouldn't take long, so once your done place it on my desk."

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><p>The long Monday school day ended with many of the students glad that another day had come and gone. Sakura stretched in her seat, happy that Monday was over. She started to collect her books, "Are you going to be staying late today, Sakura?"<p>

Sakura looked at Hinata's waiting look for her to finish packing her bag, she shook her head, "No, not today. I've got practice at the studio, so I'm heading there."

Hinata nodded at Sakura reply and bid her farewell for music practice at the choir club. Sakura continued to pack her bags, and started to stand up, "Ready to go, Sakura-chan?" Waiting at the door were Naruto and Sasuke; an everyday Monday routine. Ever since Sakura's dance practices were moved to late nights, on Monday's and Thursday's, the two boys would go with Sakura to her dance practices, leave for dinner, and then come back to pick her up. It's happened ever since Sakura had her _accident_ back in their first year. "Yup, I'm already." The three friends walked out of the classroom towards the parking lot where Sakura's jeep and Sasuke's own car awaited them.

"Mah, that was harsh of Kakashi-sensei to give us a pop quiz. I had no idea what I was doing, even with Sakura-chan's homework." Naruto complained all the way to the car.

"That's your fault idiot. If you kept your mouth shut, it would have saved us all the trouble." Naruto hmphed and crossed his arms, turning away from Sasuke in anger, "How the hell was I supposed to know he was going to give us a pop quiz?"

"Hn, knowing how you act, he would have given one to us sooner or later." Sasuke's monotone voice insulted Naruto.

Sasuke headed to his Mercedes Benz SL. Naruto followed Sasuke to his car and Sakura to her own. They both pulled out and headed towards Sakura's home. Within ten minutes they reached her two-bedroom apartment that she shared with her mother, but was overseas a lot doing work.

Sasuke parked outside of the apartment building and waited there for Sakura to park her jeep in her apartment's garage. Within seconds, Sakura headed out with her school bag and another bag she used for dance. She popped the trunk, placed everything in, and went to the passenger side, where Naruto moved his seat forward, so that Sakura could sit in the third passenger seat that Sasuke had specially placed in.

"So, right to dance practice Sakura, or do you have time to grab a snack?" asked Naruto eagerly hoping her response to be a yes. Sadly, Sakura shook her head, "Sorry Naruto, we've got placement auditions soon, so I'm taking extra classes until I'm finished with my performance in June."

Naruto pouted, but understood that Sakura was dedicated to her dancing. Sasuke pulled out and headed towards Sakura's studio, "Look to your left."

Startled at Sakura's voice, Sakura turned and noticed a bento box, "Okaa-san thought that you might be hungry, so she made that for you."

"Thank you very much, Sasuke-kun. Please tell Mikoto-san that I'll pay her back somehow," touched by the kind gesture, Sakura held the bento close to her.

A few minutes later, Sasuke reached Sakura's studio, and parked.

"Thanks for taking me again, Sasuke-kun. It really isn't necessary, you know."

"Of course it is Sakura-chan! We care about you, and we want you safe. We're not going to let what happened last time happen to you, got it?" Naruto proclaimed loudly. Sakura smiled and thanked them again.

"What time?"

"Nine o'clock please Sasuke-kun." Sasuke nodded, and Sakura headed inside; only when she was within the ballet studio did Sasuke drive away.

"Hey, Sakura, you're here early," asked a brunette girl.

"Yeah, since we have placements coming up for our recital, I thought that I should be here more," the brunette nodded in understanding, "Well then get ready, cause we've got a full schedule ahead of us."

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><p>At nine o'clock on the dot, Sasuke pulled up in front of the studio, and five minutes later, Sakura stepped out redressed in her school uniform. She pulled open the passenger door and sat herself down. Once secured with her seatbelt, Sasuke pulled out and drove off back to Sakura's place, "Thanks for picking me up again Sasuke-kun, you really don't have to."<p>

"Hn, it's not a big deal," as much as Sasuke said it, she still felt bad. The ride was quiet. Sakura knew that Sasuke like his silence, so she never really brought up any sorts of conversational talks. After knowing him for so long, Sakura knew when she could read Sasuke. So, when Sasuke started to speak, "Hey, there's someone I'm interested in," and confessed to having feelings for someone, it caught Sakura completely off guard.

"You…You do," Sasuke nodded, "Well, do you mind if I ask who the girl is?"

Sasuke was quiet for a bit, then he dropped the bomb, "It's Karin."

Suddenly, Sakura's heart stopped the fluttering notion she's had in her chest ever since he admitted to liking someone, to almost stopping completely from whom it was that he liked.

'_Karin! That ugly, stuck-up bitch that's been making my life hell, since like ever,' _thought Sakura. But quickly, Sakura squashed down her thoughts, "O-Oh, I see."

Sasuke nodded completely oblivious to Sakura' heart breaking, "I was wondering something…"

"I'm sorry Sasuke-kun, but if you're asking me to get in her circle of friends, then that'll be impossible for me"

Sasuke was quiet for a bit more, but spoke up again, "No, not that, I just wanted to know if you could try to be…nicer to her."

Sakura was a bit shocked considering he knew how Karin treated Sakura. He knew that Karin did not like Sakura, so how did he _fall_ for her? It just didn't make sense to her, "I'm…kinda afraid that she may not like me if you and she keep fighting, so can you try to not make her so angry anymore?"

Sakura's heart just kept breaking from the words that Sasuke spoke. As much as Sakura wanted to whine and complain that no she would not do such a thing considering she was never the one who picked the fights, Sakura nodded, "I'll…I'll try my best…Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke nodded and pulled up to Sakura's apartment, "Thank you again Sasuke-kun." He nodded once more and drove off, leaving Sakura to her own devices. Sakura was glad that Sasuke didn't wait for her to enter her apartment, because if he did, then he would have seen the tears streaming down her face and heard the breaking of her heart.

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><p><strong>I hope that you guys have enjoyed the first chapter! Please review because they make me smile! :)<strong>


	3. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone! If you're reading this than that means you have liked the first chapter, yayz! I hope that you enjoy and if you are a continuing reader and have not read my AN that I made in the first chapter, then I will remind you again that I made a lot of revisions and editing to this entire story. I hope that you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if I did...my life would literally be complete. I do own this story line though!**

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

Sakura lethargically drove to Konoha Gauken early the next day. She parked in her usual parking space at 5:15 a.m. and did not leave her car. She sat in her car wearing a red wine, thin-strapped leotard, black calf leggings, and black booty shorts with a gray zip-up jacket with their school name in green on the back and their mascot in green on her left breast. Silence filled the air as Sakura sighed and relaxed more into her driver's seat, sipping her white chocolate mocha from Starbucks, "Wow, you're really early today."

Sakura looked out her passenger window to see Ino with her own thermos of homemade coffee. Upon seeing the Starbucks in Sakura's hand, Ino's brow lifted up, "And you went out to buy Starbucks, not make your own coffee…okay what's wrong?"

Ino opened the passenger door and settled herself in the seat. Quiet filled the air as neither of them decided to talk, rather enjoying their warm coffee so early in the morning. Ino turned expectantly towards Sakura waiting for her to spill what was going on, "Sasuke said that he likes someone."

And suddenly, Ino's ears perked up. A happy smile came upon Ino's face, "Yeah, and the lucky girl is…you, right? I mean…who else could it honestly be? He knows that you like him and after so long of being with him, he's finally decided to make a move. Ah! Oh my god, you have no idea how happy I am for you! Finally, he's notic-"

"Karin."

Ino's ranting stopped, and she looked at Sakura deathly quiet, "Are…Are you fucking kidding me?"

Sakura's silence was the only answer she needed, "That bitch who's made your life hell ever since high school? You have got to be joking! How could he do that?! He knows how she's treated you, and he _likes_ her! What the fuck?!"

Sakura kept silent, never once speaking up, "Ugh, say something Sakura!"

But she kept her silence.

"Sakura!"

"What is there to say?"

Ino grew quiet at Sakura's question, "What can I say? I can't cry to him and complain that I've been there for him for everything, so he should pay attention only to me. He…he has his own life and his own rights to fall in love with anyone that he wants, I…I can't take away his free will…"

"But-" Ino was cut off, "But nothing Ino…it…it was a long shot anyways."

Ino didn't speak after that, she still wanted to keep her silent promise to Sakura to get Sasuke to notice her one way or another, but how was she supposed to do that if Sasuke _liked_ someone else? And Karin nonetheless. Ugh….everything was so frustrating.

Sakura opened her door, "We should probably head up, Coach will have our heads if we're not there. Besides, we have the welcome festival for the new school year coming up soon, and we are second years, if we want those captain spots, we have to show our sempai-tachi that we're the best."

Sakura was really too nice and responsible for her own good, but then again, Ino couldn't love her best friend any less. But with the situation as it was now, Ino was not going to let it go unsaid, "Screw that, we have to do something about Sasuke, Sakura!"

But, she was ignored as Sakura gathered her dance bag from her trunk as well as her backpack and head towards the gym. Ino followed Sakura hot on her heels, "We are not done with this Sakura! Why aren't you mad? Didn't you say anything to him?"

The more Ino kept probing Sakura for information, the more Sakura kept quiet. She didn't trust herself to not burst out into tears if she did say anything. Soon enough, the girls reach the gym and walked the hallways heading to the girls locker rooms. In there is where the girls met the bane of anyone's existence, "Well, well, well, if it isn't little sidekick Sakura tailing Ino like the lovesick best friend that you are, right?"

Karin appeared with her badly cut, uneven red hair, square glasses, and "super model" body self. She paraded around the locker room as if she owned the whole place, sizing up Sakura's petite body. Sakura tighten her hold on the two straps of the bags, but never really looked Karin in the eyes. She eyed Sakura's defensive self up and down and smirk, "You're as cowardly as ever, _Sakura_."

Ino glared at her, "Why don't you shove off Karin? Nobody asked you to make your presence known."

Karin turned her head upwards and crossed her arms, "Nobody needs to tell me when or when not to become known. _I_ follow my own rules. _You_ don't tell me anything of what to do."

"Well, as _your_ candidate captain, I can tell you what to do," angrily said Ino as she placed her hands on her hips and stood in front of Sakura.

"Heh, please, that captain spot is mine. Hiding behind your best friend again Sakura…so typical of you, little forehead girl."

Anger surged through Ino, "Hey! Don't call her that! I'm the only one that can, and since I don't see the title of best friend anywhere near you, you can't!"

Rolling her eyes, Karin retorted, "Whatever, I can call her whatever I want," she looked over at Sakura who was at her locker and placed her backpack in, "Well…aren't you gonna say anything Sakura? Fight back, why don't you loser?"

Sakura was quiet as she closed her locker only leaving her with her dance bag, "I don't really want to Karin, I'm sorry."

Karin assessed Sakura in her dance clothing and smirked her stupid "cool" smirk once more, "I thought you didn't. Looks like I won, see you later losers."

Ino glared at Karin as she sashayed her way out of the locker room trying to walk with her hips swaying, "Ugh…I hate her!"

Sakura shrugged her shoulders and walked out, Ino caught up with her, "And you, why didn't you retort or fight back or something? There was so much that you could have said there to destroy her, so why didn't you."

"Because I promised…" softly spoke Sakura. Ino was now officially confused, "What do you mean you promised, to whom?"

"To Sasuke-kun…I promised that I would try to not get Karin so angry at me anymore in fear of him not getting her to like him and whatnot."

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL SAKURA?!" Ino exploded at hearing that.

Sakura sighed, "Look Ino, we'll talk at lunch, and I'll tell everyone there okay?"

Ino studied Sakura hard, "You better, Saks, and everything, I won't settle for anything less." Sakura nodded, "Of course, now you head to cheer practice, if you want that captain position, don't make a bad impression on your sempai." Ino smirked and turned around, "The same thing goes for you, candidate for Dance Team Captain."

* * *

><p>Sakura walked into the locker room at 7:15 tired and exhausted from her dance practice. She reached her locker and lazed against it for a bit enjoying the coolness the metal brought onto her skin. While she rested there, a sweaty hand came and rested upon her shoulder, "Come on now, your locker is no place to sleep, you can do that when you get up to Kakashi-sensei's class." Sakura turned to look at the owner of the hand and saw Temari there still in her sweat shorts and gym top with a volleyball logo across the front. Not at all embarrassed, Sakura teasingly whined, "But it's so nice and cold! I don't want to move!"<p>

"Ugh, you complain too much. Come on Miss Prima Donna, time to get changed," and she turned away to her own locker right across from Sakura's, "Whatever Temari."

Sakura input her combination into the locker and started to dress herself. First, she took off her shorts and leggings. Next, before she rid herself of her leotard, she placed her bra on top of her breasts, and then peeled off her leotard. She pulled on her black pleated skirt that ended mid-thigh; she pulled on her white short-sleeved dress shirt and tied her dark, forest green tie. Sakura pulled on her socks, placed her feet in her indoor shoes, grabbed her messenger bag, and threw her dance clothing into her locker. The finishing touches that Sakura placed on were her cherry blossom pendant that she hid underneath her school shirt, placed a red banded watch with Mickey Mouse in the center of it on her left wrist, and pulled out her hair tie from her hair and placed it back on her right wrist, where many others were settled upon. She turned around and saw Temari already done with changing into her school uniform. While Sakura's school uniform showed off her womanly assets, it also made Sakura look like a really cute girl that walked right out of an anime show. For Temari, her uniform fit her snuggly, but still made Temari every bit of the tomboy/girly girl that she was.

They both walked out of the locker room, and met Ino, Tenten, and Hinata at doors to the outside hallway that connected from the gym to the main school building. "You guys sure took your sweet time getting ready."

The two of them shrugged and walked off to their class, "We're gonna eat lunch outside the roof door today, okay?"

The all three girls except Sakura looked at Ino with a questioning look, but said their own agreements to eating their lunch in the secluded area. They walked off to their classroom, and all parted to their own desks; Sakura and Hinata heading in the same direction to their own. Already in his chair was, Saske leaning back in his usual cool pose with his hands in his pockets and looking out the window to his left. Sakura walked to her desk and sat down, turning to Sasuke, "Morning, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke moved his eyes towards Sakura's direction, but soon turned them back to the window, "Hn."

Disappointed at his one worded response, Sakura turned back in her desk and proceeded to organize her homework, "Hey."

Immediately, Sakura turned her head over her left shoulder to Sasuke's form. Slightly blushing she responded, "Yes…Sasuke-kun…"

He was quiet for a bit longer, then began to speak up, "Karin and you…" Sakura's casted her eyes downwards, and turned her head away from her crush, "I avoided doing anything to provoke her, Sasuke-kun."

Upon hearing those words, Sasuke's form relaxed from his slightly tensed position. No more words were said from Sasuke, but unbeknownst to him, the fragile girl in front of him was trying her very best to keep her tears at bay.

* * *

><p>The school day continued for everyone as normal with classes going on. Lunch came soon enough for the students, where some third years left campus for lunch, while the rest of the students stayed on school grounds. Sakura sat up from her desk with no lunch in hand and ready to go with her girls to their lunch area. In the cold seasons, they would eat lunch either in the classroom or behind the roof door if they wanted privacy, and in the warmer seasons they ate on the actual roof or out near the field underneath the cherry blossom trees. She met them outside the doors of the classroom and walked away. Nobody paid any attention to the girls who walked up the stairs to their lunch area. Sakura went to prop open the roof door for some air, while the others set out the food. It was Tenten's day in the week for her to make everyone lunch. They made lunch on different days of the week, but only once that week. All of the other days, they each made their own lunch.<p>

"I made dim sum for lunch today. I hope that none of you mind." Tenten was half Chinese and half Japanese, and while she loved Japanese food, she was super in love with Chinese food. She took cartons out of their picnic lunch basket and set them out. Tenten made BBQ pork buns, shrimp dumplings, vegetarian dumplings, and a small plate of mandarin styled noodles."

Each of the girls took their share of what they wanted and began to dig in. "So, tell us Ino, why was it so important to eat lunch here today," asked Tenten.

"Well, I needed to know what else freaking Sasuke said to Sakura."

The girls turned towards Sakura worriedly, "Is there something wrong…Sakura?"

"If he did anything, I swear I'll bash in that pretty little face of his," threatened Temari, and Tenten said a remark of agreement.

Sakura sighed, "He didn't do anything…really, he just well…Ino," Sakura looked toward Ino's direction, "The stupid prick told Sakura that he likes Karin."

…Silence….

Tenten was the first to speak, "Are you fucking kidding me? That…that…_whore_…he likes her? What the fuck is wrong with his head?"

Ino and Sakura nodded sadly at Tenten's reaction, "How the hell is that possible?"

Hinata tried to calm Tenten down, "Tenten, please, calm down, we don't want the teachers to hear us."

"Then let them Hinata," spoke Temari, "This totally calls for an outburst. What the hell is that pretty boy thinking? And he told you this Sakura."

Sakrua nodded, "Yeah, last night when he picked me up from my dance practice." Ino rolled her eyes, "That's not even the "best" part, tell them what he asked you to do Sakura."

The girls stared at Sakura patiently waiting for her to tell them what Sasuke said, she sighed, "He asked that I try not to make her so angry from now on, because he's afraid of her not liking him if I'm there causing fights with her so much."

"Are you joking me?" shrieked Hinata. The girls stared in shock at Hinata's outburst, and upon realizing her outburst, Hinata turned tomato red, "I'm sorry, that-that makes me angry that he's accusing you of Karin's picking on you your fault."

Understandingly, the girls nodded, and Sakura sighed and leaned back in her chair, "So, what are you going to do?" questioned Temari.

Sakura sighed again, "There's nothing really that I can do Temari. I can only…I can only do what he says." The girls stared at Sakura, "I don't…I don't want to lose his friendship, and the fact that he told me that there was someone he liked after so long, then…then he must really like her. So, I'm not going to interfere."

The girls wanted to say more, but didn't. They settled for eating Tenten's lunch and quiet settled over the usually enthusiastic girls. They each ate their fair share of what was served with few fights over who would get the last piece of food, "I think…," everyone turned towards Hinata, "I think that Sakura is kind."

Everyone was confused, and Hinata continued, "Sakura is kind because she does not want to hurt Sasuke's feelings. She is willing to put aside her own feelings so that her heart's affection will receive happiness instead of her own. So…Sakura is kind. If it were me…I'm sure that I would have been much more jealous and petty in Naruto-kun not even considering my feelings."

Sakura smile, "It's not that I'm not sad, because I am. My heart is broken, but what can I do? I don't want to take away his chance at possibly finding someone. It is his own life, and I don't control it; I don't want to. So, I'll be here for him whenever he needs me."

Tenten was still worried about Sakura, "Yeah, but, what if he could be happier with you than with Karin? You won't know that unless you ever tell him directly. I think you should tell him, he could still return your feelings."

Sakura shook her head, "I don't think he would. It seems that he really likes Karin, and I don't want to get in his way." She packed up the containers and placed them back into the basket and placing her trash the plastic bag she received from the basket, "I'm going to head back to class. I'll see you guys there."

Quickly, the other girls threw away their own trash, Temari taking the picnic basket, and followed Sakura down the stairs. They reached the bottom of the stairwell just in time to catch up with Sakura, "So what are you gonna do now Saks?" questioned Temari.

"Nothing. I'm going to stand by his side and be there whenever he needs me to be. I'll be his friend. It'll hurt, but I'm sure that I can live."

Ino grabbed Sakura's hand making her stop walking. "Look Sakura," started Ino, "I know that you're in love with the guy since like forever, but you have to open your eyes to the situation at hand. You cannot keep waiting. I'm sorry Sakura, but it's over. You are going to have to give up."

"Ino…that's harsh!"

"It's the truth Hinata! Sakura, you have to face the truth sooner or later, and I recommend that you do so sooner rather than later. Remember what I told you in the summer? I am not going to let you mope around all senior year and wait on the sidelines forever for a guy who might never give you the time of day. So wake up Sakura!" Sakura kept her gaze on Ino's blue eyes. Not only Ino, but all of the other girls could tell how broken Sakura was at Sasuke not returning her feelings after so many years.

"It's over…Sakura…You have to move on now."

* * *

><p>School ended and all of the girls were at the shoe lockers. All five girls put on their outdoor shoes, except Hinata, and gathered around each other. They carried their school bags while all of their other sports bags were in their respective gym lockers, save for Hinata who was part of the choir club, instead of a sports club. "Alright, I'll see you guys later! I've gotta open up the training room today, so I'll be working late tonight."<p>

"Alright we'll see you later, I might come in to get my elbow iced, I think I did something to it," expressed Tenten while taking her left hand and rubbing her right elbow. "Yeah, I may need something for my arches, their killing me," admitted Temari.

Sakura nodded her head, "Sure, go get changed and I'll get everything set up."

All of the girls nodded, "Alright then, see ya Sakura! And I am sorry if I was harsh with you earlier." Sakura shook her head, "No, you are right, I can't dwell in the past. I've gotta do something, it is my last year after all." Ino smiled and nodded her head in Sakura's direction. She waved them off and walked towards a separate part of the gym, where the training room was located. The girls waved her off, but did not move from their spot.

"Will Sakura be alright?" asked Hinata.

None of the girls answered Hinata, until Tenten spoke up, "I'm sure that Sakura will be alright, she is Sakura after all."

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><p><strong>Will Sakura be alright? Well, you'll just have to read on to find out! Please review because they make me happy! :)<strong>


	4. Chapter 3

**Yayz! You must really like my fanfiction if you've decided to continue onto chapter 3, and you have no idea how happy that makes me! If you have not seen my previous chapters, then I will inform you that I have made revisions to chapters 1-5. **

**Onwards to the fanfiction!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if I did...my life would literally be complete. I do own this story line though!**

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

To the side of Konoha's gymnasium was another smaller building that was connected to the gym. This smaller building was the athletic training room where students of the Konoha Gauken's student body could come to if they were injured. While the two teachers in charge of the club could take care of more serious injuries if they were to ever happen, the students who helped out in the room did simple tasks, such as taping sprained ankles, fingers, and wrists, icing or heating down the muscles of athletes for stress, and other tasks to help the athletes in their injuries. It was at the door to the smaller building that Sakura stood holding up a key to open the locked door. Once opened, Sakura walked in and turned on the lights. She placed her messenger bag on the chair behind the only desk in the room, and then took the hair tie from her wrist, tying her mid-length hair into a simple braid. While tying her hair, she walked towards the back of the room where the taping station was. Finished with her braid, Sakura proceeded to open drawers that contained pre-wrap and special medical tape that Tenten and Temari would need for their injuries. So immersed in her work, Sakura did not hear the footsteps of another person come into the room. The person was another male that contented himself in watching Sakura moving around the taping station, gathering the contents that she needed. Finally finished gathering what she was in need of, she turned around only to steady herself on the station behind her and placed her right hand over her heart, "Oh my god, you scared the crap out of me Takeru-san!"

The tall boy in front of her laughed at her scared reaction because of the amusement it brought him. Takeru Shinji, a very popular boy in Sakura's junior class. He towered over many with his five foot eleven height, and others, mostly of the female population, admired him for his lean, masculine build that he gained from his basketball and baseball team practices. His dirty silver blonde hair fell in slightly limp spikes on his head and his brown eyes always held some sort of intensity that even Sakura had to save herself from blushing underneath, "I'm sorry to have scared you so much Haruno-san. You looked so busy that I didn't want to disturb your work."

Sakura assessed Shinji up and down and noticed that he was dressed in black basketball shorts and a gray t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. The shirt clearly stated KONOHA BASKETBALL in the front in green, "Are you already starting practice, Takeru-san? School isn't even out yet."

Shinji leaned on one of the medical tables with one hand on his hips and the other pushing back his hair, "Nope, after school I decided to go for a run around the school block, then work on today's practice schedule for the basketball team while eating a late lunch."

In understanding, Sakura nodded, "I see, then what brings you here then?"

"Well, at baseball practice yesterday, my batting was really off, and I felt some pain in my wrist whenever I swung the bat. I iced it once I returned home, but when I woke up, it still hurt a lot. So, I figured that if I came here, someone could help me." While explaining, Shinji moved his arms position to have his wrist hand holding his left wrist to exemplify where he was feeling the pain.

Walking away from the taping station, Sakura stood in front of him, "Can I see your wrist? I may be able to tell what is wrong with it." Shinji nodded and handed Sakura his wrist. While moving his hand to lie atop of hers, she had him clench and unclench his fingers. Seeing as he was not in any pain, she applied pressure to his wrist area, and it was there that he flinched just a bit, "It doesn't seem like anything serious. Have you been able to perform all of your normal activities using your left hand?"

Hearing the clearly stated sexual innuendo from the innocent pink-haired girl, he smiled a large smile, and Sakura had a small blush tainting her cheeks, "That's not what I meant and you know it."

Looking at Sakura's huffing self, he laughed a bit, "Yeah, I've been able to do everything fine with my left hand, I think it was just hurting from holding the bat and such."

Sakura walked away towards a large machine and opened the lid. She began to fill up a plastic bag of ice, "Well, it seems as if it is just sore from so much use. You had a break from both of your sports clubs before the start of the beginning of the trimester started, right?"

Shinji nodded his head in reply to Sakura's question, "I think then that's it just sore because you put yourself back into your normal sports routine after a break. When you were batting, you must have twisted it when swinging your bat, so it feels a pinch of pain. I would keep icing it before practice here and after practice when you get home. I'll tape it today, but once that's over with don't ask for a taping unless it's absolutely necessary. Also, if you have a wrist brace, I would recommend that you place that on your wrist whenever you're not practicing, and also when you are."

Sakura walked back towards Shinji with a bag of ice, "Here's a bag of ice. Keep the ice on your wrist for fifteen minutes, and then I'll tape you up."

"I really appreciate it Haruno-san." Sakura nodded and went to sit down at the desk in the room. She took out her school planner and went over what subjects she had for homework. While looking through her homework schedule, Shinji pulled up a stool in front of the desk and sat with Sakura. She looked up from her work in confusion, "Is there something else, Takeru-san?"

Shinji shook his head.

Still confused, Sakura went back to her work, _'Let's see…I have Japanese, Math…did Asuma-sensei give us homework?'_ She was interrupted from her thought, "Haruno-san works hard." Surprised, she looked up again in confusion at Shinji staring at her with that intensity that had her slightly blushing, "What do you mean, Takeu-san?"

"Haruno-san is always top of the class during testing and academics. You also the vice-captain of the dance team here, instead of one of the third years, and take outside of school classes for dancing. I hear that the dance team captain will be naming you captain as well, which is a remarkable feat. Not to mention that your work in the sports medicine club under the tutelage of Principle Tsunade and Shizune-sensei who is the school's nurse. I don't know how you do it, Haruno-san."

Shinji's admirable complements made Sakura heavily blush at his praise for her, "I don't know about that. I just do the things that I really enjoy doing. But, you shouldn't talk about me so highly, Takeru-san. You place in the top ten percentile of the school's academics, and you are the captain of the boys' basketball team, as a junior nonetheless, as well as a part of the boys' baseball team as well. Kakashi-sensei is always bragging about how great of a choice he made when he made you captain last year, even the seniors didn't argue. And, don't forget about the masses of girls who are very much infatuated with you."

He did not look one bit ashamed at being praised so highly, instead cockily smiled, "While I may be great at the things that I do, I believe that you are great at the things that you do. I'm surprised that you don't have a boyfriend, Haruno-san. Surely, many have been asking you for your affections."

A bit touchy from today's lunch topic, Sakura turned her head downwards and pretended to be immersed within her homework schedule. It was quiet for a bit, but soon enough Sakura spoke up, "It's not that I don't want a boyfriend, Takeru-san. I do, but…but my feelings for the one that I like have not been returned at all. He…He's in love with someone else."

Shinji frowned at the pretty girl's dejection in front of him, "I'm sorry about that Haruno-san. I wish that there was a way for your crush to return your affection to you."

Sakura shrugged, "Its' okay. Sasuke-kun…Sasuke-kun is entitled to like whomever he so wishes. I have no control over that."

"You mean Uchiha Sasuke? Wow…I guess I should have seen that one coming, since you and him are really good friends."

Sakura blushed a little more realizing that she just told the boy in front of her on her crush of Sasuke, "Please don't tell him, okay?" Shinji and Sasuke weren't on the same sports team, but they did share a locker room that was full of guys and secrets. She was afraid of it getting to him, "I won't tell a soul, Haruno-san, but…why wouldn't he return your feelings? It looks to me as if he would like you as much as you like him with how protective he is of you."

Dejectedly, Sakura shook her head, "He doesn't, but it's okay. I'll still be waiting by his side no matter what will happen."

Ending their conversation there, the two of them feel into complete silence with Sakura putting her planner away and pulling out her math homework. The silence was broken when Shinji spoke up, "Haruno-san…"

Sakura looked up from her work to see that Shinji was leaning over the desk, and her face was very close to Shinji's own, "Takeru-san…"

Shinji leaned closer to Sakura, capturing her emerald eyes within his own chocolate brown orbs, "Haruno-san…I…I li—" "Awwwwww! Look Tennie, it's a couple of lovebirds going at it!"

The two figures near the desk broke apart with Sakura pushing herself backwards in the rolling chair with her face holding a red blush, and Shinji standing up straight with his head turned towards the side trying very hard to hold his own blush down, but a pale pink dusted his cheeks. "Did we interrupt a confession going on here, huh Sakura?" joked Temari.

"It seems that we did Temari, seeing as how the two of them looked like they were ready to kiss," Tenten then turned towards Temari lowering herself to her knees while Temari stood tall, "Oh, Takeru-san, what were you saying?"

Temari played on with the joke, "I just wanted to tell you Haruno-san that I'm in love with you!" Tenten pretended to faint, "Oh, Takeru-san, I think I might faint."

Temari ran behind Tenten, "Then please, faint into my arms, for I shall then place you atop one of the tables so that you may have a comfortable lying area."

"Oh, Takeru-san!"

"Oh, Haruno-san!"

"Cut it out you guys! You're embarrassing me, and Tenten, I am not that short!" shouted Sakura standing up from the chair she was sitting in. "And that is not what was happening, Takeru-san was…was…" she looked over to Shinji to ask him for help. Realizing her frantic self, Shinji tried not to smile; he liked teasing the pinkette, so why not play along, "Really, Haruno-san is that what was happening? I clearly remember that you looked at me with those beautiful green eyes of yours, and they pulled me in to kiss you right on the spot."

Sakura's face could not have been redder, "Takeru-san." Sakura hid her face behind her hands, and Shinji, Temari, and Tenten all laughed at the poor girl's misery. She needed nicer friends. "I'm kidding, Haruno-san. Actually, I was just going to tell her that the fifteen minutes are up, so I needed my wrist to be taped now."

Desperately trying to put her composure back together, Sakura gestured towards the taping station in the back, "Okay, then, head over there, while I try to get these hyenas settled down." Shinji walked towards the back, but did not sit down seeing as it was an arm injury and not a leg injury, while Sakura walked to her two friends holding themselves up on the doorway from their laughter at the poor girl. Sakura pushed them into the room and each put them on their own separate table and let them settle themselves down, as she went back to tend to Shinji's wrist. She pulled out some pre-wrap and started to wrap Shinji's wrist starting a little above his wrist and wrapping around to his wrist and around his hand. With a single layer of pre-wrap, she grabbed a roll of tape and started to do the taping method that was meant for the wrist. In a few short seconds, Sakura was finished with a pro taping that many doctors would be jealous of. Shinji started to flex his wrist as Sakura explained what he could do with the taping, "Now with the taping you can do your normal practice, but try not to strain yourself for a couple of days. Tell your team what drills to do, but don't wear your wrist out by overworking it. So, tell your coaches that it needs rest, but in a couple of days you'll be back to doing your regular practice in no time."

Shinji nodded at the "doctor's orders," "Of course, Haruno-san. Thank you again for helping me."

He walked out and waved at Sakura and nodding his acknowledgement to the other two girls settling down from their laughing fit, "You know…" began Temari, "If you had told us you were having a private rendezvous with the basketball captain, we would have come much later to give you some _couple_ time."

Sakura shook her head at her friend's nonsense, "Come on guys stop it. Takeru-san was just here to get his injury checked; he was not hitting on me."

Tenten shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know Sakura. You and he seemed awful close at that desk there. You sure there wasn't a little something something going on?"

"Positive. Now, here's your ice for fifteen minutes, and then I'll tape you both up." Each sat on the table, while Sakura returned to her spot at the desk with her heart finally settling down from the beating that it took from Shinji's closeness at the desk earlier, "This could be a good thing you know." Sakura looked up from her homework, and stared at Tenten, "Now that Uchiha's been taking affection to _her_ you can move on to another guy. And it seems to me that Takeru Shinji is definitely interested in you."

Temari nodded, "She is right, Sakura. You can start to look at more of the opposite sex if you want to move on from him."

Sakura sighed, "I can't do that, not now at least. I still hold feelings for Sasuke-kun, and besides, I couldn't move my feelings towards Takeru-san. We're just friends." The conversation ended there with Sakura giving no more room for argument for the other two girls.

* * *

><p>Shinji walked into the boys' locker room a little sad at his being interrupted from his talk with Sakura. He placed his left hand into the pockets of his black basketball shorts and rubbed the back of his head with his right hand and sighed. "Hey captain, everything okay?"<p>

He looked up and noticed his entire team was already in the locker room readying themselves for practice. Shinji sighed with a little resign, "Yeah, I'm fine, I just got interrupted from something."

He sat down on the bench in front of his locker and leaned against it, "You mean you got interrupted from confessing to someone?"

Suddenly, all the boys on his teams started hounding him over who the mystery girl was, "Who was it taichou?"

"Come on give us a hint man!"

"Was it that brunette chick from class 2-C?"

"Nah it's gotta be that blonde girl from 2-B, right?"

"No way, you've got it all wrong!"

"Come on, give us something here taichou?"

As much as his teammates prodded him for answers he gave none, until one of the guys who was his best friend on the team spoke up, "It was Sakura, right taichou?"

Shinji gave an embarrassed glare towards the brunette male beside him, while the brunette only smiled cheekily at his best friend. All of the guys spoke at once, "You mean Haruno Sakura?"

"You're a lucky dog taichou! I wish I could get a girl like her!"

"Tell us when the wedding is, okay?"

The basketball team guys all laughed rancorously with each other and poked fun at their captain. Shinji just sat there ignoring his teammates jokes and let his thoughts drift back to the pink-haired beauty that he's had a crush on ever since he entered high school.

Unknowingly to the basketball team, a male with black spiked hair stood apart from the crowd with his body turned sideways, hands fisted in his pockets, and eyes looking out of their corners towards the basketball captain with a furious glare.

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><p>"Have a good night all! I'll see you bright and early tomorrow!" A chorus of good-byes rang from inside the dance room as their vice-captain, Sakura, walked out. She lifted her hand for one last wave as she made her way, but did not get far because of the notice of a male figure leaning against the wall opposite of the dance room, "Sasuke-kun?"<p>

Said male lifted his head, and started to walk away. Confused at his body language, Sakura did not move from her spot in front of the dance room. Noticing that there was no female by his side, he stopped and turned around, "You coming or what?"

Sakura came back to her senses as she jogged to catch up with him. She hadn't talk with Sasuke all day today; unless you counted the small conversation they had about Karin in the morning. But, Sakura was really curious as to why he was here so late when the boys' basketball practice had ended an hour previous to the girls dance practice. They ended at six o'clock, while dance went onto seven o'clock, so why?

"Sasuke-kun?" softly spoke Sakura. Sasuke glanced to his left in acknowledgement that he was listening, "Why are you here so late, Sasuke-kun? Your practice ended an hour ago."

Sasuke snorted, "Because it's dangerous to walk alone at night, or have you forgotten?"

Being chastised by Sasuke did not bode well for Sakura, but she knew that she could never really be mad at her precious Sasuke-kun, "I know that, but why are you here? This is school property, and I'm not alone. I would have been fine."

Sasuke did not dignify Sakura with any sort of response, instead, just shrugged his shoulders and jammed his hands in his pockets. Still confused, Sakura did not bother on the issue anymore, rather enjoying the coolness the night brought upon her skin once they stepped outside of the gym doors. When they both got outside into the night air with the sun just peaking up above the horizon, threatening to go down any minute, Sasuke spoke, "You should be more careful, Sakura."

Confused at Sasuke's question, she looked at him demanding for answers, and he just sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "I mean that you shouldn't let guys take advantage of you Sakura. You're too nice for that, especially with guys who think that they can confess their feelings to you and have you fall head over heels for them."

"I…I don't understand, Sasuke-kun."

He scoffed, "You are not that dense, Sakura. Surely you must know that a lot of guys like you right?" Sakura looked at Sasuke in confusion, and shook her head, "I have no idea what you are talking about. Guys…like me?"

In frustration, Sasuke stopped walking, while Sakura did the same. They were right by her car any way, there was no reason for them to keep walking any further, and Sasuke parked right next to her. "Sakura…just…be careful, okay?"

Sasuke never showed this much worry for her, but she played along, "Okay, Sasuke-kun I'll be careful, but I still don't understand. If a guy likes me, then why can't I go out with them?"

Exasperated, Sasuke replied, "You can't because."

"Because what Sasuke-kun. Because you don't want me to?"

_'Finally she gets it,' _thought Sasuke, "Yes."

Wanting to find out more, Sakura interrogated Sasuke, "Why? Why can't I go out with them? What if I like one of them?"

Sasuke started to get angry with Sakura liking one of those _boys_, "Because I said so. Look, you…you don't need to go out with a guy. There all just a whole bunch of idiots who think they can get into whatever innocent girls' pants that they want."

Sakura looked at Sasuke for a long time, and finally sighed. _'It's way too good to be true, for him to actually have secret feelings for me.'_ So, Sakura nodded.

"Okay…Sasuke-kun. I won't give my heart away so easily."

Satisfied with Sakura's reply, he nodded. They both said their good-byes and Sasuke walked towards his Mercedes, while Sakura loaded her trunk with her school bag and dance bag.

"Oh, Sakura…one more thing," Sasuke's voice brought Sakura's eyes towards his figure, and had her blushing. She thanked god that it was dark, so Sasuke couldn't notice, "Stay away from Takeru Shinji. I don't trust him"

On that note, Sasuke settled himself into his car and drove off leaving Sakura very confused at Sasuke's parting note. Hearing his name made Sakura think about how close they both were in the training room earlier in the day, and Sakura started to blush. The more she thought about their close position, the more Sakura's heart started to beat within her chest.

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><p><strong>Does Sasuke have some jealousy stirring inside of him? What are Shinji's real feelings for Sakura? You'll have to read on to find out! Please review because I'll give you all metaphorical gold stars! :)<strong>

**P.S. Takeru Shinji is my own character.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Yayz, you like me! You really like me! I'm so happy that you've decided to continue onto chapter 4, and you have no idea how happy that makes me! If you have not seen my previous chapters, then I will inform you that I have made revisions to chapters 1-5. **

**Onwards to the fanfiction!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if I did...my life would literally be complete. I do own this story line though!**

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><p>Chapter 4<p>

The next few days had Sakura in a daze, and before anyone knew it, Friday had come around much too fast for anyone's liking. But this Friday was no ordinary Friday. No, not at all; this Friday had the joy of having Valentine's Day falling upon its date. So, many girls at Konoha Gakuen had the population of girls fretting about wanting to hand their chocolates to the boy that they liked. Many of the guys at Konoha Gakuen would be waiting by their lonesome selves for the girl that they like give them chocolate, or any sort of recognition from the girls, but sadly ninety-five percent of the girls in the student body were all completely infatuated with only one boy that they held in their fairytale dreams: Uchiha Sasuke. To the girls, he was a god just waiting to share his flawless features with the girl that catches his attention. His person was so flawless and his looks had every girl turn his way with hearts filling up their eyes. Every single girl at Konoha Gakuen wanted Uchiha Sasuke to return their affections, but every single one of these girls would, of course, be shot down. The girls' precious Sasuke only had one girl on his mind on this lovers' day, and it was a stupid, ugly, red-haired bit-…..

Now, let's not let our anger get the best of us. Deep breathes…in and out…in and out. Okay, now to continue. Not many people, actually, no person at Konoha Gakuen knew who Uchiha Sasuke had taken an interest in and he would not let anyone know, save for his very good pink-haired friend. Sakura knew that Sasuke liked Karin and would probably only accept _her_ chocolate and give the rest away; she did not discourage herself to give him her homemade chocolate. The night before Valentine's Day, Sakura had finished all of her homework in class and left dance practice early, so that she could make him a special chocolate. Being a close friend of Sasuke's, Sakura prided in knowing that Sasuke did not usually like sweet items being more of the preference of liking bitter things to eat. So, Thursday night, Sakura worked late into the night making Sasuke bitter chocolate. With her other friends, she had completed their normal chocolate the night before. So, coming to school on Friday, Sakura came to school with her school bag filled with her schoolbooks, and another bag filled with chocolate treats for her friends, and a special one for Sasuke. She had no morning practice for dance, so she arrived at school at 7:30 in the morning, changed her shoes, and walked into class 2-A to be greeted by the smiling faces of all of her classmates and friends, "Good morning everyone!"

Greetings from anonymous classmates greeted her monotonously, but her group of friends greeted her enthusiastically, "Morning, your late today Saks. We've already exchanged amongst ourselves, you're the last one!"

Sakura laughed a bit, "Sorry about that, I didn't go to bed until really late last night."

All of the girls were confused, "Why so late darling?" questioned Ino.

To give her reasoning, Sakura opened her messenger bag and pulled out four neatly wrapped packages, "These are for you guys!"

Sakura handed Ino a small square shaped box wrapped in purple with an orange ribbon on top. Then, she gave Hinata a square box wrapped in dark blue with a lighter sky blue ribbon on top; Tenten a box wrapped in dark red paper with a lavender ribbon; Temari a box wrapped in dark forest green and a light pink ribbon atop. Each of the girls accepted the small packages of chocolate with thanks, "Thank you very much, Sakura. I'll treasure this," softly and shyly spoke Hinata.

"Yeah, thanks from me to," started Temari. Tenten and Ino said their thanks as well. All of the girls smiled and thanked Sakura for her gifts. Afterwards, the girls gave Sakura the chocolates that they made for her. It was a tradition between the five girls. They would make chocolates for each other and exchange them on Valentine's Day; instead of making return White Day gifts for the other in return.

"Ne…ne…Sakura-chan," all of the girls turned towards Naruto's puppy dog eyes on Sakura's person, "Do…do I get a Valentine's day chocolate from you?"

Sakura laughed at Naruto's "desperation" for her chocolates, "Of course you do, Naruto," Sakura dug around her bag and finally found the one she made for him, "Here you go." Naruto's Valentine's chocolate was wrapped in bright orange paper with s bright yellow ribbon on the top. The chocolate made Naruto smile so widely, it could have frozen onto his face. Suddenly, he swooped Sakura up into his arms and spun her around in thanks, "Thank you so much Sakura-chan! I love it! I'll savor every single bit of your special chocolate that you gave me!"

Sakura laughed as Naruto spun her around in circles, "Put me down Naruto! It's not that big of a deal, is it?" After a few more spins, Naruto put Sakura down, "Of course it is! Receiving your chocolate is great because you're so kind-hearted to even think of me!"

She smiled and secretly looked over at Hinata's fiddling hands, "Oh, I'm sure that my chocolate won't be the only one that you are receiving today Naruto."

All of the girls looked at Hinata's direction and lightly laughed, while Naruto was still oblivious to the joke. Meanwhile, all of the classmates looked at the happy bunch, "Man, I wish that some girl would give me chocolates on Valentine's day."

Sakura looked over to see on Akimichi Choji not munching on his usual bag of chips, but rather resigned at not receiving any delicious chocolates. Sakura smiled and stepped around her friends to stand in front of Chouji's desk. She put her hand into her messenger bag and pulled out another box of chocolates wrapped in dark blue paper and red and green-stripped ribbon, "Here you go Chouji, this is for you." Surprise filled his system, "For me?"

Sakura nodded her head, "Of course, I have one for every person in our group of friends from middle school." Chouji nodded his thanks, and Sakura went through the classroom handing her homemade chocolates to her larger group of friends. She walked up to Shikamaru and handed him chocolate, and he accepted it with lazy thanks, but happiness shown in his eyes. Then, she walked over to Inuzuka Kiba and Abruame Shino handing them their individual chocolates; moving on to Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji, Hinata's cousin, desks to hand them their individual chocolates. "Thank you a thousand times Sakura-san! I shall treasure this box of pure gold that you have made especially for me. You are surely a beautiful blossom that radiates kindness!" While Lee ranted, Sakura walked away awkwardly from Lee, and headed over towards Sai's desk. Even stoic and non-emotional Sai received a chocolate, "Thank you very much, Ugly. I'm sure that it tastes as repulsive at that mop of hair you claim is pink."

…Sakura slowly walked away from Sai in fear of possible committing manslaughter in front of all of her 3-A classmates.

After giving out her chocolates, Sakura sat down and turned in her desk to see the boy who held her heart's affection, but he was nowhere in sight. She looked around the room only to find no handsome boy with dark chicken butt hair, "Hey Naruto, where is Sasuke-kun?"

"Oh, that bastard? He's probably still out in the hallways receiving chocolates left and right last time I saw him, but he seems to be lingering out there more than ever. It was a bit strange." Hearing Naruto say that Sasuke might have been waiting for a special girl to give him chocolates, Sakura tighten her hold on her bag, "Oh, I see. Well, he'll probably be here soon. It's very unlike him to be late for a class." Naruto nodded and sat down in his desk, while Hinata super shyly made conversation with Naruto.

Sakura looked out the window and stared off into the distance checking out everything that was happening on the field down below. There was nothing strange going on except for the two figures, one who looked strangely like Sasuke because of his spiky shaped hair and the other figure who was a girl with red hair. Sakura's eyes widened and never left the two figures below. It _was_ Sasuke, but the girl was unknown to Sasuke. She watched the exchange happening below, seeing how the red-haired girl shyly and coyly gave Sasuke her chocolate. Sasuke took the chocolate, and what surprised Sakura the most was there was a hint of a smile that Sakura could see from her high point of view. The bell rang and the two of them walked the same way towards the inside of the school, giving Sakura better view of the girl that gave him the chocolate. Not a few minutes later Sasuke walked into the room. Nobody noticed his absent presence as he strode in with no box of chocolate in sight and sat down in his desk ignoring the mindless chatter going on about him. He put his bag on the side of his desk and sat without a care in the world in his seat. But, not every person in classroom 3-A was oblivious to Uchiha's lateness. Haruno Sakura was not oblivious to Sasuke's tardy, and she was trying very hard not to cry from the shock of seeing Sasuke and Karin together.

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><p>It was late afternoon with the sun still in the sky but creating hues of bright orange, pink, and slight hints of yellow throughout the sky painting the world. Sakura stayed behind in the dance room. She was dressed in a pair of light pink tights, a black leotard, a black wrap around dance skirt, with a navy blue t-shirt and on her feet were a pair of pointe shoes. The music began on the second chorus,<em> 'N to S jishaku mitai itsuka kizukeba…'<em>

Sakura stood in fourth position with her left leg bent and her right leg straight with her arms behind herself. She jumped into a pas de chat on the N and kicked her right leg up in a grande battement on the S. For the rest of the first line in the second verse, she stepped down on her battement leg to spin herself around in double lame duck turn into a glissade then a grande jete. From the jete, she piqued around in a circle opting for a double attitude turn at the end. Falling into a croisée with her arms stretched wide: her right arm making a diagonal above herself and her left arm making a straight line. From the croisée position, she did a tombé pas de bourrée step into three fast brisés into another pas de chat, kicking her right leg back into a grande battement. Going into a sissonne from the battement on her pointe shoe, clapping sounds could be heard from the entrance of the dance room. Sakura suddenly stopped her routine and clumsily came down from her position. Looking at the clapping happening in the door way, she smiled at the single-person audience that she had, "Takeru-san, you like to scare me don't you?"

Shinji laughed at Sakura's accusation, "Of course, I'm happy to know that I am able to scare you whenever I can possible."

Sakura giggled at his joke. She walked over to turn the stereo off and unplug her ipod from it. Walking over towards to her bags, Sakura sat herself down, and Shinji walked over towards Sakura's place, "So, what are you doing her so late, Haruno-san?"

"The dance captain placement is taking place tomorrow, so I'm trying to go over some of the choreography that I would like to do during my routine." Shinji nodded at Sakura's explanation, "The captain's spot is as good as yours no matter what competition you have against the other juniors on the team."

Sakura nervously laugh, "I don't think so. A lot of the other juniors are really good, so I want to do my best for tomorrow. Oh, that reminds me…" Sakura walked over to her dance bag, took off her pointe shoes and stored them back in the bag, while she pulled out a package from her school bag and walked over to Shinji. The package was small and square shaped wrapped blue paper and tied with a silvery green ribbon, "This is for you, Takeru-san." He looked confused, "For me?"

Sakura nodded, "Yes, I wanted to thank you for comforting me the other day in the training room, as well as for always being a great friend to me in all of the time that I have known you." Shinji looked shocked, but a warm, breath-taking smile appeared on his face, "Thank you very much…Sakura." Sakura thought her heart stopped for a second when Shinji smiled at her and said her name, but she let it drift to the back of her mind and gave her own smile in return to his. She started to walk away to her bag when Shinji grabbed hold of her wrist, "Wait, Saku—" Sakura turned around to face Shinji, "Sakura."

Sasuke stood at the dance room door looking at the two of them with an apathetic look, "Sasuke-kun." Sasuke looked at Shinji's hand holding Sakura's wrist, and the two of them quickly broke away, "What are you doing here so late?" He shrugged his shoulders and leaned against the doorframe not saying a word.

Shinji sighed, "I suppose that I should be going now, that spot is as good as yours tomorrow, Haruno-san." Sakura smiled at him, "Thank you very much for your encouragement, Takeru-san. I'll take your words to heart tomorrow." He nodded and walked away, but turned around to face Sakura with a breathtaking smile on his face, "By the way, Sakura…thank you very much for the chocolates."

The beating of Sakura's heart speed up and a light pink blush decorated Sakura's face. Satisfied, Shinji walked out and placed his shoes back on outside of the door, "Don't get in over your head." Shinji looked to see Sasuke not looking at him at all but knew that he was the one who spoke to him. He smirked, "I don't see your name on her Uchiha."

Sasuke turned toward Shinji ready to tell him off, but controlled himself and settled for glaring at him. Shinji did not turn back, only walked out with his head held high. Sasuke sneered and turned back to find that Sakura had disappeared, he looked around the room for a second before he heard her voice behind one of the stalls off to the side, "So, what are you doing here so late Sasuke-kun? I would have thought that you went home by now." Sasuke rested himself against the doorframe and gave no response.

"Geez, thanks for responding Sasuke-kun, you sure are a conversationalist." He didn't see her, but he knew that Sakura was rolling her eyes. "You're annoying."

"There's the Sasuke-kun that I know and love," it was Sasuke's turn to roll his eyes. His eyes wandered over to Sakura reappearing from behind the dressing room door and followed her figure over to where her school bag was. Silence flowed comfortably between the two of them as Sakura took her time in packing up her dance bag.

"I thought I told you to be careful."

Sakura turned towards Sasuke and met his eyes, "I am being careful Sasuke-kun. So, what are you talking about?"

Sasuke didn't say anything making Sakura sigh, "And there you go back to being a rock. You know…a conversation can only take place when two people are contributing to the talk at hand." Sasuke gave his own monosyllable word, "So, why was _he_ here?"

Sakura blinked, "Takeru-san? Oh, he saw the light on and came to see if there was something wrong because our practice doesn't go this late on Friday."

His gaze intensified on Sakura's back and she could feel it, "What were you guys talking about?" Sakura shrugged, "Nothing, he and I were just making conversation, see he can talk like a normal human being."

Sasuke didn't respond, and Sakura could only sigh. She finished packing up her dance bag, and proceeded to stand up with both of her bags, "I don't trust him."

Sakura looked up in surprise at Sasuke's statement, "Why? Takeru-san's a really nice person Sasuke-kun. What do you have against him?"

"Hn. Don't worry about it."

Sakura put her hands on her hips and assessed what in the world was going through Sasuke's mind. She just didn't get it. What did he have against Takeru-san, hell any guy? Argh, Sasuke could be so frustrating at times, "You're car's in the shop, right?" Sakura nodded, "Let's go then."

Sasuke walked out without any more words to Sakura, and she followed because even though Sasuke was cold and uncaring to a lot of people, Sakura could see the silver lining of Sasuke's kindness. She follows him on his way to his car, and they both walk in silence. Side by side, they walk, and Sakura could not feel any happier walking by his side.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun, I almost forgot!" Sakura stopped walking and looked through her school bag for the package that she had for him. Sasuke stopped right beside her and waited for whatever she was looking for in her bag. Finally, Sakura found it and pulled out a medium sized square box wrapped in a black paper and a dark blue ribbon, "I almost forgot to give you your Valentine Day's chocolate. I hadn't gotten the chance to talk with you all day, until now, so here."

Sakura stood with her hand outstretched with the package that she spent hours making for the person that she held the highest regard for. Sasuke looked at the package, but soon took it with a small mutter of thanks. She smiled as widely as she could, happy that Sasuke had accepted her chocolate, "Sasuke-kun must have received other chocolates, right?"

There was no answer from him as he walked away and Sakura caught up with him. Silence dominated the space between them, but there was nothing to say, but Sakura started up the conversation, "There were a lot of other people that I gave chocolates to today too!" Sasuke shrugged, "I made chocolates for Ino, Hinata, Tenten, Temari, Naruto…" Sakura kept rambling on about who she gave chocolates to, "I even gave some to Lee and Shino, too…was there anyone else…I don't think so…"

Sasuke put his hands in his pockets and listened as Sakura muttered names to herself. He felt relaxed and composed with Sakura near him. He didn't feel pressured to be who others thought him to be, and he didn't feel mobbed like when he was around his idiotic fan girls. With Sakura, it felt natural and comfortable, so long as that basketball team captain did nothing to disturb what he and Sakura had— "Oh, and I gave a box to Takeru-san as well," that made Sasuke stop. "I can't believe I almost forgot—" Sakura ceased her talking as she ran into Sasuke's backside.

"Geez, a little more warning next time Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke didn't say anything, "What are you, made of rocks? Actually, it's more like steel, because that freaking hurt."

"You gave chocolate to Takeru?"

Sakura blinked, "Yeah." She blinked twice more, "Why?"

Sasuke turned around and glared at Sakura, "Didn't I just say to not trust any of those boys?"

"What is the big deal? Its just Takeru-san. He and I are friends."

He snorted, "I'm sure that's what was going through his head."

"Ugh, you are so difficult! Takeru-san and I are friends! It's completely fine to give my _friend_ chocolate!" Sakura stood defiantly with her arms crossed across her chest.

Sasuke didn't say anything, he just glared at Sakura. In his mind, Sakura was naïve and completely blind to how the basketball captain felt about her. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, then he looked back at Sakura for a very long time. She only stared back at Sasuke as fiercely as she could. Neither of them gave up.

"I don't like him Sasuke-kun. Not in the way that you think I do. Takeru-san is nice, but I don't like him like that." A light pink blush appeared on her face, "I don't like Takeru-san…there's…there's someone else that I like. It's someone you know, but that's all I'm giving you. And just so you know, the guy that I like…I'm sure that you would approve of him."

Sakura stood with her arms wrapped around herself protectively with the same light pink blush on her face. Sasuke only stood there and stared at Sakura. Again, he sighed and turned around to begin walking again. Sakura ran to catch up with Sasuke's long strides. Once she caught with him, Sasuke spoke, "If you're so confident that I'm going to like this guy, then you'll have to introduce him to me one day."

Sakura stopped walking. Sasuke didn't notice until he and Sakura had a fair distance between each other. He stopped walking and turned around to see Sakura with her head down, tightly holding her bags, "Sakura?"

She didn't speak; she only let silence flow through them.

"The person that I like…"

She couldn't get the words out, but she knew that it was now or never if she didn't.

"The person that I like…is right here."

Sasuke looked confused at Sakura's statement. Finally, Sakura gathered up all of her courage to look at Sasuke eye to eye, still with a light pink blush across her cheeks.

"The person that I like the most is you Sasuke-kun."

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><p><strong>What will Sasuke's reaction be? You'll have to read to find out more! Please review because you are all wonderful and superfantabulous people! <strong>


	6. Chapter 5

**So...yeah...I haven't updated in a really long time. In that time, I've finally graduated out of my freaking high school that gave me nothing but great and sad memories, had some fun exploring different adventures with my closest friends, and did some reunions with my school friends who I have known since I was four years old. I've been in college for almost a full school year, and I'll be coming to a close on my freshman year in college in a little under three weeks. It's been a long journey, but I have finally been able to study the major that I have wanted for so long, and my future job that I want to pursue has never been more clear to me. I'm hoping that I'll be better in doing more updates, but I just have a lot of studying that I have to do, so school will have to sadly come first, then anime and manga, and then fanfiction. But if you have decided to keep up with my crazy fanfictions that I appreciate you guys being in for a long ride. **

**A/N: I have made revisions to all of the chapters in this fanfiction, so if you are just starting on this chapter, I suggest you go back to read through the whole thing, but I've made a lot of revisions and editing. **

**Onwards to the fanfiction!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if I did...my life would literally be complete. I do own this story line though!**

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><p>Chapter 5<p>

_April 3_

The cherry blossom trees were in full bloom on the start of the new school year at Konoha Gakuen. New freshmen students had their entrance ceremony early in the morning, where higher officials of the school gave speeches. Senju Tsunade, the principle of Konoha Gakuen, gave her usual welcoming speech to the new students and transfers, threatening them that if they did anything against the honor code violations, then there would be serious hell to pay. Hyuuga Neji, the student council president, gave his monotone speech to the new students with a hope that everyone would be able to work towards a strong goal and that they would enjoy their time at their new school. There were no official classes for second and third years on the day of the entrance ceremony, but they had to come to receive their class assignments and class schedules for the half day of the first day of school. All students other than first years had a late start an hour later than the first years, so many made plans to meet up before hand to gather after the long break. Sakura, Hinata, Ino, Tenten, and Temari met up at Starbucks—no cars—and each got their own drinks. With their drinks in hand, the girls walked on their way to school ready to be prepared for the new school term.

Tenten and Ino were happily joking around and making silly arguments that only made Temari, Hinata, and Sakura laugh and smile. Sakura's smile was the brightest of them all; she smiled and laughed and joked and had fun with her best friends.

It made her friends sad that Sakura was trying so hard to hide her broken heart.

All five of them walked through the school gates happy and feeling on top of the world. The welcoming ceremony had just ended, so the incoming freshmen were roaming around the front yard of the school campus, and stared as the upperclassmen walked by.

"Don't you guys love being on top of the world?"

They giggled, "We enjoy it, but we're not flaunting it like you are Ino. Come on, you're really pushing how much of a senior you are."

Ino turned around, she wore her usual school uniform, but she added her senior jacket, different colored shoes, jewelry on her wrists and neck, and her senior pin on her school jacket. But, what probably stood out most of all was her attitude; the fact that Ino held herself much higher and had an aura of superiority could be radiated to every single freshman on campus. "Oh, please, don't think you're not flaunting that fact to, Temari."

Temari blushed. She wore her senior jacket and different colored shoes, but she didn't have an air of superiority around her, "Whatever."

"Why can't you be more like Sakura here, huh?" Temari walked behind Sakura and grabbed onto her shoulders, pushing her in front of Temari's self, "See, she's not flaunting anything. Sakura's being her kind usual self not caring that everyone sees that she is a senior."

Sakura sweat-dropped and laughed embarrassedly, "Aw let her have her superiority complex Temari. Besides, if Ino weren't acting as superior as she is now, then she wouldn't be the Ino we know and love."

"I can't tell if you're saying that lovingly or not Forehead."

"I mean every word Piggy."

Both of then leaned on each other's shoulders and laughed tensely at each other, "I'm sure that she means no harm by that Ino…Sakura…"

"Forget it Hinata. When they're in their rivalry phase, nothing can bring them out."  
>"But, we have to check our classroom, and then receive our class schedule. We don't want to be stuck in the long line that will form."<p>

They looked on at Sakura and Ino still laughing at each other tensely, and decided to head to the bulletin board with the list of names in which class. When they arrived they looked at the class list and found that the three of them were in the same class as the last year, and also found Sakura and Ino's name in their class. After checking, they headed back to the two frenemies, "Hey, we found our classes, and we're all in the same class again this year. So, let's head over to the classroom, we'll get our schedules in there."

Finally, Sakura and Ino broke out of their tense laughter, they headed inside the building together. They stopped at the shoe lockers and exchanged their shoes.

"Sakura-chan!"

Everyone turned towards the loud voice that rang throughout the entire schoolyard. Naruto came running at full speed, launching himself at Sakura and bear hugging her into a hug that stole all of her breathe.

"I missed you Sakura-chan! Not seeing you at all over the break made me super sad! Every time that I called you up, you always said that you were busy and had no time!"

Naruto gave Sakura his puppy dog eyes that had tears escaping at the corners, "Ano, Naruto-kun…" Naurto turned around to Hinata's soft voice with a questioning look, "Sakura can't breathe."

Naruto looked back to his precious Sakura-chan and noticed that she had fainted from the lack of oxygen from Naruto's bear hug and turned blue. He quickly let go of her and Sakura breathed in the largest breathe that her petite body could take in, "I'm sorry Naruto, but I was just so busy with dance that I didn't have time I'm sorry."

Seeing Sakura the way she was in Naruto's eyes made him relax and smile the calmest smile that he could for her, "That's okay Sakura-chan, I get it."

Sakura smiled at Naruto, but it didn't last long. From Sakura's view, she could see a familiar dark-haired male that was the cause of Sakura throwing herself into her dancing and reclusive self during the entire break. Sasuke came to the shoe locker and stared at Sakura for a bit, before he hit Naruto upside the head, "Ouch! What the fuck was that for Sasuke-teme?"

Sasuke didn't even spare a glance towards Naruto, only examined Sakura. Sakura looked at Sasuke for what felt like a tense second, but was quickly replaced with Sakura's happy-go-lucky smile, "Good morning Sasuke-kun. How was your break?"

Sasuke did not answer her only kept his eyes on her. Before he could even speak, the shrill voice of girl came squealing into the shoe lockers, "Sasuke-kun!"

A flash of obnoxiously bright red hair came bouncing onto Sasuke's back. The red head threw her arms around Sasuke's shoulders and glued herself to his back, "Sasuke-kun! I'm so happy to see you here! I missed you _so_ much!"

Sasuke's shoulders were no longer tensed and he turned to the red head with a neutral face, "You saw me yesterday night Karin."

Karin coyly smiled and giggled, "I know silly, but I still missed you in our time apart. You aren't cheating on me with Sakura, are you?"

Sasuke shook his head, "I'm with you…Karin."

She couldn't take it. She was trying really hard to be strong, but she just couldn't, not the way the scene in front of her was going. She had to get out of there, before the façade that she tried so hard to build over break cracked. Suddenly, Sakura felt a tug on her right uniform sleeve; Hinata had tugged on it, and silently pointed her head over in the direction where Ino, Tenten, and Temari were standing a fair distance from the "cute" couple, "We should head to class, Sakura. We want to grab the seats next to each other, right?"

Sakura breathed; she nodded her head and walked away from Sasuke and Karin without any more words spoken. It took whatever strength Sakura had left to not turn back.

* * *

><p>"Come on, Sasuke-kun. Escort me to my class." Karin pulled on Sasuke's right arm and led him to the inside of the school building, but before he left though, Naruto muttered something that only Sasuke heard.<p>

"It's all your fault Sakura-chan's sad you bastard."

Sasuke only glared back at Naruto's angry form.

* * *

><p>There was a seating chart on the board, so the girls were slightly sad that they could not choose their own seating arrangements, but were happy that their seats looked similar to the previous semester's seating. Sakura sat down in her desk in the second row from the back next to the window and collapsed into her chair. She took a few deep breaths and finally regained her composure; she felt another tug on her right sleeve. Hinata was sitting next to Sakura in the second row to the back like last semester; she looked at Sakura very worriedly, "I…I want Sakura to be happy, because when Sakura is sad it makes me sad too, because I want to know that I can do something to make Sakura happy again. It…It is really selfish of me to ask of you, but please, when you can…smile. And please, do not hesitate to tell us what is on your mind, because we will always be here for you."<p>

Sakura looked at Hinata, and then looked at the other three in the classroom who were also looking at Sakura worriedly, _'Idiot. You're making everyone worry too much.'_

Sakura smiled a small smile, "Thank you very much Hinata. I'm sorry to make you all worry so much."

"We're happy that we can worry so much about you Sakura. It's because we love and care about you."

Sakura smiled a little wider. A pair of hands came and clasped on top of Sakura's shoulders, "That's right! So, if there's anything that we can ever do for you, then please come to us. We'll always be here for you." The hands belonged to Naruto, who Sakura smiled for too.

The heartfelt moment was felt throughout the room, but was soon replaced with the mindless school chitchat about the new school year, "fresh meat," and whatever other nonsense could come about in conversations. The other three girls came and joined Sakura and Hinata and talked about nonsense like everyone else. Their teacher wouldn't even arrive until one minute after the bell knowing their late sensei, and had no qualms about anything. Neji already came in from the student council meeting of the new school year and left the schedules on the teacher's desk for everyone to pick up. At Konoha Gakuen, seniors had special choice classes that they could take depending on if they completed their required academic classes from the past school years. Since everyone wanted specialty classes, all seniors finished their academic requirements, but still had to take Math, English, Japanese, History, and Science academic classes. Each of the five core classes were held on throughout the school week as the first class of the day, and then the rest of the three classes would be the specialty classes. Third years would be finished with their school day by the early afternoon, leaving the last two classes of the day for them free for either studying for entrance exams for colleges, part-time work, extracurricular activities, or leaving home early. Third years would stay in their respective homeroom classes for the first class of the day where their teacher would come to them, but switch into different classrooms for the rest of their classes. On Saturdays, all grade levels had a half-day, and not only the first and second years, but all seniors would have their core classes, instead of specialty classes. For the third years, since they have five core classes, they would only have forty-five minute classes, and end at 11:50 in the morning, where then, each of the homeroom teachers would hold announcements and tell the students important information for them. Temari, Hinata, Ino, Sakura, and Tenten were comparing what specialty classes they had each decided to take when they had their parent-teacher conferences in the middle of their second year.

A knock at the front door of the classroom was heard by two of the 3-A classmates. Kiba and Shino turned towards the knock at the door and were the first ones to turn to the opening of the sliding door, "Yo Shinji, whadya doing here? Did you transfer into our class bro?"

Shinji shook his head making the spikes in his hair swish back and forth, "Nah, actually, I came here to see someone from your class."

Kiba had a sly grin while Shino tilted his sunglasses downward, "Whom are you asking for?"

"Sakura Haruno."

Kiba's grin got even bigger, "Yo Sakura! You've got a vistor! It's a guy!" The class quieted down just a bit and turned towards Sakura's direction that looked up from her schedule to see who was asking for her, "Takeru-san."

Shinji smiled at her, "Hey, Sakura, can I talk to you for a second?"

Sakura looked at him a bit confused, but got up from her seat and walked to the open door, "Um, sure, what is it you wanted to talk about?"

"Not here, come with me," Shinji grabbed her hand and tugged out the door. He ran out with Sakura from class 4-A, "Where are we going, Takeru-san?"

"Don't worry about it, just come with me!"

The two of them ran down the senior hallway with some students staring at them as they passed by. One student in particular stared at them as they ran past him without so much as a glance in his direction. Sasuke turned around and stared at Sakura being tugged by the captain of the basketball team heading to an unknown direction; his grip on his backpack tightened so hard that the blood from his left hand drained.

* * *

><p>"What…what are we doing on the roof, Takeru-san?"<p>

Sakura put her hands on her knees slightly panting from the exertion of running so fast from everyone. Shinji just stood there with his front to her trying to catch his breath too, but not responding to her question.

"Takeru-san?" Sakura walked up to him and lightly tugged on the sleeve of his uniform.

"Shinji."

Sakura tilted her head to the side with cute, confused expression on her face, "Shinji…please, call me Shinji, Sakura."

A small blush nestled upon her face, "But Take-"

Shinji put his right index finger against Sakura's lips, "Not 'Takeru-san'…'Shinji.'"

Sakura looked away from him and her face flushed brighter.

"Shin…Shinji…"

Shinji's smile became even brighter than it usually was; it made Sakura's heart race just a little faster than it already was. Sakura lightly coughed, "So, what is it that you wanted to talk about Shi-Shinji."

He kept his smile, "Our second year ended the day before White Day, and during the break I hadn't been able to see you at all, so I couldn't give you your White Day present."

Sakura blinked, "White Day?" Shinji nodded.

Sakura was confused for a minute, and then remembered her Valentine's Day chocolates that she had given him.

"Oh that, it's okay really! I didn't give you Valentine's chocolate for you to pay me back on White Day! It's because you're a dear friend of mine and I just wanted…"

Sakura blushed a pretty pink and fidgeted in front of Shinji. But Shinji didn't seem to mind; instead, he smiled and kept his eyes on the pink-haired girl.

"I want to give you something Sakura. I want to because I like you."

"What?"

Sakura looked into Shinji's eyes. His brown eyes had such an intense passion in them that Sakura blushed a little heavier.

"Close your eyes."

Sakura tilted her head to the side, but listened to his request and closed her eyes. From behind his back, Shinji's left hand appeared holding a fully bloomed white rose with a pure white ribbon tied around it with all of the thorns were cut off and held it front of Sakura's eyesight.

"You can open your eyes now Sakura."

Emerald green orbs opened and immediately saw the beautifully bloomed white rose. She blushed just the slightest and slowly took the rose from Shinji's hand. Holding it together with both of her hands, Sakura twirled it in her fingers and smiled very brightly.

"Thank you so much Ta—Shinji! I love it! It's so beautiful."

"Just like you."

Sakura's blushed deepened, but the smile never left her face.

"Thank you Shinji, I'll treasure it."

Shinji's smiled just the slightest and a light pink hue appeared on his face. Entranced by the rose, she was shaken out of her stupor when Shinji called her name. She looked up at Shinji and noticed that his face was much closer to her own than she had originally thought.

"Y-Yes."

"I like you, Sakura."

"Shi-"

"I like you Sakura. Will you go out with me?"

Sakura stared into Shinji's brown eyes and saw nothing but seriousness in his eyes.

"Shinji…I…well…"

Sakura shied away from Shinji's intense gaze. She had to give him an answer, but she didn't want to hurt him because Shinji was a good friend. She enjoyed his company and wanted to be able to not be awkward with him after his confession to her. So, Sakura mustered some of her strength to look him in the eye. A light blush adorned her face.

"I'm sorry, Shinji, but…I'm afraid that I can't return those feelings to you."

Shinji looked into Sakura's emerald eyes for five seconds more, and then smiled and leaned back to give Sakura some more breathing room.

"I figured you didn't, but I wanted you to know that I like you. Actually, I have stronger feelings for you than just like, but I'm sure that you're not ready."

Sakura tilted her head to the side in confusion, but didn't put much thought into it.

"But I'm not going to give up."

"Eh!"

Sakura was shocked to hear what Shinji had just said, "But you…"

"I like you Sakura, and I'm not going to give up on you because I want you to like me too."

"But Shinji—"

"I know that you like me to an extent Sakura. I can see it in your eyes and the blush on your face that you are attracted to me on some level."

Sakura blushed at Shinji's proclamation. No doubt did Sakura think that Shinji wasn't attractive, oh no, that wasn't true at all. Shinji was attractive, very, very attractive. His brown eyes matched well with his dirty silver blonde hair; his body was very built after conditioning himself for both of his sports teams; and his height only added to his attractive image with him standing at six feet tall.

"I like you Sakura; I want you. And even if I don't have your permission to pursue you, I'm going to do it anyway."

"You're not serious. There's no need to do that, I mean…w-what if I don't return you're feelings in the end. Then, you'll have wasted your time on me instead of finding another girl that you may like later."

"I don't want another girl Sakura, I want you, and I'm going to show you that you deserve a guy who will treat you like the amazing person you are. I know what happened between you and Sasuke…"

Sakura looked away. She didn't know if she could deal with the memory of what Sasuke said to her a couple of months ago.

"I didn't mean to spy on the two of you, but I was locking up the gym when you guys were walking by, and well, truth be told I wanted to know what you guys were talking about, but I never imagined that it was you confessing to him."

Sakura didn't say anything. Instead, she stood there with her face turned to the side, her eyes glazed over just the slightest, but a blush still adorning her face.

"Sakura, I want to show you that you deserve to have a guy who likes you because you are beautiful and kind and smart and amazing. I'm warning you now that I'll make you fall for me."

Sakura's face turned redder and she squirmed in her spot shyly after hearing Shinji's words. Shinji stood up to his full height and smiled down at her. Shinji leaned back down and before Sakura knew it, she felt a light pressure on her right cheek. He pulled away, smiled, and then walked away and started heading towards the roof door.

"Let's get you back to your class. The bell's gonna ring soon."

Sakura turned around and stared at Shinji's retreating back.

Maybe. Just maybe…

Sakura sprinted toward Shinji and caught up to him. She walked by Shinjji's side, just slightly trailing behind him.

"You know, it's rude to kiss a girl when she's caught off her guard."

Shinji laughed, and they talked all the way toward Sakura's classroom.

As they walked through the hallways, they never noticed a shadow watching them the entire time.

* * *

><p><strong>I hope that you have enjoyed my update and that you will hopefully continue to keep up with my madness and that you have enjoyed my fanfiction so far! Please review because I like you guys so much, I will give you an air hug through the computer!<strong>


	7. Chapter 6

**...I have excuses as to why I haven't updated within the past year...year and a half but...I'm sure that you don't want to hear that and move onto reading the new chapter I posted instead. Just know that I've gone through a lot of changes in the past year and a half that have kinda be somewhat life changing...a good life changing, but difficult to sometimes keep up with it and try to update my fanfictions regularly. **

**I am sorry to the readers who may have been expecting another update sooner rather than much later than I had said or anticipated, but know that I haven't given up on this story! I'll stop my spiel now, but I am so so so so so sorry for not updating sooner! I may have lost some readers, but I hope that you guys enjoy my new chapter! I'm not sure if it's short compared to others, but I'm working on this at 4 AM, so I'm kinda tired and my eyes hurt, but here is my long await chapter 6! **

**Please enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto! But, SasuSaku is Canon!**

* * *

><p>I'm Still Waiting<p>

Chapter 6

"I'll see you later, Sakura."

Shinji walked away and into the class next to hers, but not before looking in Sakura's direction and giving her a gentle grin with soft eyes. Sakura waved shyly at Shinji before he fully disappeared into his classroom.

Sakura stayed in the hallway for a few more seconds, still stunned at what has transpired between the two of them within the past fifteen minutes! Slowly, Sakura moved to return to her classroom, where she slowly pulled her chair out to sit down. Her eyes were locked onto the simple, but beautiful white rose in her hands. While still in its bud form, Sakura knew that when the white rose would fully bloom, it was be the prettiest rose in its bunch.

Sakura was so caught up in her thoughts on the rose, that she didn't even notice her blonde best friend standing in front of her desk with her hands on her hips.

"Well?"

Still caught up in her thoughts, Sakura did nothing to acknowledge the annoyed blonde.

"Sakura!"

No response.

"Sakura!"

"Ino, keep your voice down. We're in class!"

"Not until she tells me what the hell just happened! It's not every day that Sakura gets called out by a guy, not to mention a hot guy! And guys don't give roses to girls for just no reason, so something happened, and I was not there to see it!" Ino moved to cross her arms over her chest and tapped her right foot out of impatience for her best friend still not responding to anything the blonde was saying.

"You don't _need_ to know Ino. You just can't help your curiosity get the better of you," Temari remarked to Ino's need for juicy gossip.

"Of course I _need_ to know Temari, I'm Sakura's best friend! And don't hide that you're not curious yourself. I'm sure that you're waiting in anticipation on knowing what the hell happened just as much as I am!"

Sakura was still completely oblivious to the conversation about her that was happening right in front of her. She couldn't take her eyes off the pretty rose, "Oh, for god's sake! At least put the rose in some damn water before it withers away!"

"Hey!"

Ino plucked the rose right out of Sakura's hand, and placed it in the vase at the back of the classroom, where it could gather water until Sakura would take it home at the end of the day.

"Pig, what are you—"

"If you don't put it in some water, the rose'll die."

"You could've just said so."

"Your big forehead was blocking any words from reaching you, so I took matters into my own hands, now that I have your attention—"

"Are you trying to pick a fight pig?"

"What the hell did Shinji want?"

Sakura closed her mouth and blushed a pink as bright as her hair. Her anger receded and she looked like the typical blushing schoolgirl, "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

Inot rolled her eyes, "Oh please, a guy, sorry, a _hot_ guy calls you out from class, grabs you by the hand, and then a few minutes later you return with a very beautiful budding white rose and a dazed expression on your face. Now, spill."

"I-Ino, you don't have push Sakura if she doesn't want to talk about it—"

"Yeah, tell us Sakura! What did the basketball captain have to say?" Tenten jumped to join Ino on the attack of asking Sakura for information on her disappearance.

"What did he say? Hell, what did he ask? Come on, don't leave us in the dark like this! I gotta know!"

"Hurry it up Forehead, while I have all day, I have other priorities that need to be dealt with too."

A quiet mumble came from Sakura.

"Hmmm…what was that?" Ino pressed on.

"I said that he told me he liked me!" Sakura yelled at Ino half blushing from annoyance and half from embarrassment.

All of a sudden, everyone in class turned to look at the five girls after Sakura's outburst. Sakura shrank back into her seat and tried to get her bangs to cover the furious blush spreading over her cheeks, while the others girls moved to huddle closer around Sakura's desk to hide some of her embarrassment.

"I knew it!" Ino exclaimed with happiness lighting up her eyes, "What else did he say?"

Temari, Tenten, and Hinata listened intently as well, letting their pushy blonde friend press their pink-haired friend for information.

"H-He told me he liked me…and he…he asked if I would go out with him…"

"Yes! I knew it! I so knew it! Ever since Tenten and Temari told me about you and Shinji in the sports medicine room together, I totally thought he was interested in you! I've been keeping my eye on him ever since, and he totally watches every little thing you do! So, that means that we'll have to go shopping for clothes for your date then! And I know the perfect thing for you to wear! I saw it while I was window shopping and—"

"I said no."

Ino stopped her ranting, "What was that?"

"You heard me…I told him no," guiltily, Sakura hunched her shoulders and lowered her head a bit, feeling a little bad for Ino's exuberant excitement.

"Are you sure, Sakura?"

Hinata looked at Sakura to make sure that turning Shinji down wasn't a mistake. Tenten and Temari shared a glance between the two of them, but stayed quiet for the most part.

"Why would you say no?"

"Because I…I don't…I don't feel that way about him I mean…Shinji's a good guy, and he's a good friend to have but…I…I don't like him in that way…"

"You called him by his first name," asked Temari.

Sakura nodded her head with a small blush, "Yeah…he asked me to…"

"Is this about Sasuke?"

Sakura turned to look up at Ino, who appeared to be towered over her desk. Sakura stared Ino straight in the eye, before she turned to look away, "Yeah…"

"Why?"

"Because! I…I'm still in love with him…"

It hurt to admit, but it was still true. Sakura just couldn't let go of her feelings for the handsome dark-haired boy that she fell in love with so long ago. He was her first love. The one who even after his rejection still made her heart speed up whenever his name was mention or whenever she saw his name in her phone. He was the boy who made her blush so furiously at the littlest of things. He was the boy who gave her strength to push forward through the difficult times.

The problem is that she's saying this all in past tense. What was the feeling she felt on the rooftop when Shinji came impossibly close to her? Her heart sped up just as fast and she blushed just as furiously. And the rose was really beautiful, she couldn't just say 'No, she didn't want it' when it was a present for her.

In her head, Sakura tried to rationalize her sudden escalated heartbeat on the rooftop with Shinji as something so unexpected that it was probably due to the adrenaline running through her veins when Shinji had suddenly confessed to her.

Yeah…Sakura thought in her head. It was just so unexpected and caught her completely off guard that she had a sudden rise in her heartbeat. Besides, she still had feelings for Sasuke—

"Bullshit!"

Sakura's thoughts were broken by Ino's sudden outburst, "Ino?"

"I call bullshit. I'm not saying that your love for Sasuke right now is bullshit, I'm saying that what you told Shinji is bullshit."

"Ino…" Tenten warned, making sure that her two friends wouldn't make too much of a scene.

"No…newsflash Sakura, Sasuke rejected you! He told you no! He told you that he's going out with that bitch Karin and that he didn't have the same feelings that you have for him. He broke your heart and completely tore you apart, and he's flaunting his stupid relationship with Karin everywhere. Face it Sakura, Sasuke's not going to love you back."

It was silent between the five girls, not even a pin drop could destroy the quiet between them. Hinata looked worriedly over at Sakura, while Tenten gave warning glances to Ino and worrying ones to Sakura. Temari kept as complacent as she could, but she couldn't help but agree with Ino.

"I agree with Ino."

Sakura turned to face Temari, "Sasuke broke your heart and you still want to be in love with him…fuck that shit! Sorry Sakura, but if the guy's rejected you already, then don't you think it's time to move on already? You've been in love him for years, and he hasn't once acknowledged your feelings for him even when they are completely obvious. I think it's high time for you to give up on him."

"Temari…" Hinata looked at Temari, but she pressed a consoling hand to Sakura's shoulder giving her some reassurance, but also showing her that she agreed with the two outspoken blondes. Tenten also gave Sakura a small smile and shrug signaling her agreement with the others.

Sakura sighed and her shoulders dropped completed defeated, "You're right…but…"

"But what?"

Sakura stayed silent after Ino's question, but soon enough spoke something that had her four friends in deep thought for a long time.

"How do you fall out of love with someone after having loved them for so long?"

Neither of the girls had a response to that. Both Ino and Temari dropped their arms from the crossed positions with their shoulders just as defeated as Sakura's. Tenten and Hinata furrowed their brows, but didn't have a response of their own to give either.

Each of the girls were quiet, neither of them saying anything. What broke through their silence was a bag dropping on the desk behind Sakura. Each turned their head to hear the sound to see said person of topic interest behind them settling into his seat. Sasuke ignored each of their penetrating stares and organized his things in preparation for class. He looked up to lock gazes with Sakura who tried not to blush from embarrassment of talking about him and from his presence alone behind her.

"Uchiha, why don't you go sh—"

"Well, would you look at that, class is gonna start soon!"

"We should probably go sit in our seats now!"

"I'm not done—" Tenten and Temari dragged a struggling Ino back to the middle of the classroom where their seats were located and tried to calm the vicious blonde down as she fumed and tried to shout obscenities to the raven-haired boy that broke Sakura's heart.

Sasuke and Sakura stared at each other until the front classroom door opened to reveal Kakashi-sensei as their homeroom teacher from the previous year walking into the classroom, "All right now kiddies, take your seats."

With their gaze broken, Sakura and Sasuke stared at the front of the classroom with Sakura trying to tame her blush and rid herself of her awkwardness between the two of them. Sasuke stared at the front, but unknowingly to Sakura and everyone else around him, soon turned to gaze at the back of Sakura's head, all the while clenching fists so tightly turning them even paler.

* * *

><p>Everyone in class soon settled down into their respective seats while Kakashi took role and started to explain his normal spiel on classroom etiquette and what to expect in their senior year. Since it was only the first day of school, it was a half-day, where students finished by lunchtime and were dismissed for the rest of the day. All core class teachers came to give introductions on what to expect to learn in classes, and seniors would meet their teachers for their specialty classes the next day. Tomorrow, regular classes would begin for everyone.<p>

"Ne Ne Sakura-chan! Let's go grab ramen!"

Naruto bounded over to Sakura's desk and pounced on her before she could even rise from her seat, "Naruto, you're heavy!"

"Come on, let's go! Oi, Sasuke-teme, you're coming too right?"

Sasuke lifted his bag onto his shoulder and stared at his idiot of a best friend, "Hn."

"That's a yes! Aw yeah! Let's go, let's go! I'm hungry! Come on, hurry it up Sakura-chan!"

"Sorry Naruto, but Sakura's coming with us. We've got things that need to be discussed."

Ino came bounding over with Tenten and Temari as well.

"No way, you guys met up earlier this morning to meet."

Ino crossed her arms after flipping her long ponytail over her shoulder, "Sorry, Naruto, but this is an emergency. You know, like a _girl_ emergency."

"Ewwww! I don't wanna know! Lalalalalala I can't hear you! Lalalalala!"

Hinata giggled at Naruto's expression with hands covering his ears with a bright blush across her face, and Sakura snorted a bit at Naruto's immaturity.

"Naruto, it's not _that_ type of girl stuff, it's different, so don't worry," Sakura rolled her eyes at her best blonde male friend, but smiled softly at him with fondness nonetheless.

Naruto stopped covering his ears and sighed in relief. He looked over at Sakura in his puppy dog eyes that she would join him and Sasuke for ramen, but Sakura shook her head.

"Sorry Naruto, but we've got some things to talk about today, but tomorrow, we can go for ramen again, okay?"

Naruto's face fell, but quickly brightened back up at the promise for ramen together tomorrow, "I'll hold you to that promise Sakura-chan!"

"W-we can at-at least walk to the s-shoe lockers t-together…r-right?" Hinata looked at her girls with hopeful eyes; this was a big step for the shy girl who more often than not did not know how to start a conversation with her oblivious blonde haired crush.

"Of course we can!" Temari put her arm around her shy friend's shoulder, before she pushed her to stand closer to Naruto's side. Hinata caught herself before she could run straight into his chest, but not before blushing as bright as a tomato.

As the group was about the leave the classroom, Sakura stopped, "I almost forgot!"

Naruto and Sasuke turned toward Sakura see what her outburst was about. They watched at Sakura went to the vase of flowers in the back of the classroom and pucked out a white budding rose that seemed out of place in the vase full of tulips. Carefully, Sakura took the white rose and stared at it fondly.

"What's the flower for Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked his best girl friend confusedly. Sasuke didn't say a word; instead he bore in stare into the white rose being held tenderly by the pretty pink-haired girl.

"It's a present Naruto."

"From who?" Naruto questioned Sakura, but Sakura only kept smiling at the flower in her hands.

"It's a secret."

Naruto complained and pestered his childhood friend to tell him about the flower, until she smacked him upside the head to be quiet and stop being so noisy. Sasuke trailed after the two as they caught up with the rest of the girls, his eyes never leaving the back of Sakura's form in front of him.

* * *

><p>The five girls, Naruto, and Sasuke walked down the hallway towards the shoe lockers chatting about different events upcoming in their senior year for them to look forward to, expect Sasuke, he's not much of a conversationalist. Hinata walked next to Naruto, while he asked Hinata all of her favorite kinds of ramen and his favorite ramen restaurant…the kid doesn't stop talking about ramen, does he?<p>

Hinata blushed under Naruto's interest in her ramen tendencies, but she answered him as confidently as she could with a stutter or two here and there. Sakura snuck glances at Sasuke without seeming too obvious, but he caught her eye once and turned his head in question to her. Sakura blushed and turned away with a small mumble of 'nothing.'

Once they reached the shoe lockers, they started to exchange their indoor shoes for their outdoor ones, when a bright blob of blaring red came clinging to Sasuke's left arm, "Sa-su-ke-kun!"

Karin glued herself to Sasuke's side, trying to meld herself into his person. Sasuke looked down to Karin and nodded at her before he returned to putting his shoes back on.

"Sasuke-kun, you didn't come pick me up from class! I waited for you!" Karin whined to her nonchalant boyfriend.

Sasuke turned to face her once his shoes were on, "Sorry…Naruto wants to get ramen."

"I'll come too! It'll be just like a date! Just with some extra baggage," Karin turned to glare at Naruto and Sakura.

Sakura put her hands up in a weak defense, "Sorry…Karin…I won't be getting ramen with you guys, I'm gonna hang with Ino and the girls today, maybe next time."

Karin seemed to be assessing Sakura before she responded, "Oh…that's too bad, we'll totally miss you! But for sure, it'll be the four of us next time!"

Karin gave a sickly sweet smile that didn't reach her eyes toward Sakura, "I guess, then, it'll be just the _three _of us today."

Sakura tried not to flinch at Karin's insinuation of her absence between her two boys at the ramen stand, but it hurt Sakura to think that Karin would take her place between her two boys.

"Whaddya talking about? _We're_ not a threesome; _we're _a threesome!" Naruto gestured with his pointer finger to circles representing each trio, "Nobody can take Sakura-chan's place between us at the ramen stand."

"Naruto…" Sakura stared at Naruto in surprise of his defense of her spot between her two boys. Even if he may not realize it, hearing that she wouldn't be replaced now or ever in the future at the ramen stand perked her up a bit.

"Hmmmm…threesomes...kinky" Tenten smirked a bit raising her eyebrows up and down at her insinuation within her joke.

Temari snorted a bit to hide her laugh at Tenten's lame joke. Ino looked at Tenten with unamusing eyes; Hinata tittered behinds her hand; and Sakura couldn't help but laugh out loud with a mixture between a snort and a hacking cough. Karin looked at Tenten like she didn't have a humorous bone in her body. Sasuke stared at Tenten with his brows furrowed still trying to wrap his head around the "joke" that was made.

"Kinky…oh gross! No way! That's totally not what I was thinking!" Naruto exclaimed and everyone laughed at Naruto's response and expression.

As Sakura laughed, warm breath hit on the right side of her ear, "What's so funny?"

Surprised, Sakura jumped at the deep voice that spoke right into her ear. Shinji stood behind Sakura with a handsome smile plastered on his face as he stared at the reaction he got from the blushing pink-haired girl.

"Shinji!"

"Sorry, didn't I frighten you?"

Sakura shook her head and looked down, her blush still not disappearing from her face, "No, it's…it's fine. You didn't scare me."

Shinji smirked a bit at Sakura's new awareness of his proximity to her.

"Are you free right now?"

Sakura looked up at Shinji and bit her lower lip. Before she could respond, another voice answered for her, "She's going for ramen with us."

Sakura looked towards the direction of the voice. She knew that voice anywhere; it was the one that captured her heart of all these years. Sasuke looked at Shinji with a hard glare, but Shinji didn't back down and gave his own hard stare at Sasuke as well.

Sakura noticed a bit of tension between the two of them, as did everyone else, but no one dared to say a word, expect for a nosy blonde that only really only had the best intentions for her best friend in mind.

"I thought Sakura-chan was going with—"

"Actually, Sakura's completely free," Ino covered the mouth of the other loud-mouthed blonde to prevent him from spoiling her plans.

"Ino, I thought you wanted to talk—"

"Would you like to grab something to eat then?"

Blushing under his questioning gaze, Sakura fidgeted in her spot, gripped the handle on her bag as tight as she could, "Well, I—"

"There's a shop that has some really great sweets that I'm sure you'll like a lot. Come on, let's go before the lunch rush hits," Shinji grabbed Sakura's hand and ran with her out the front doors of the school.

"But wait, Shinji—" the man in question turned to glance at the girl behind him while still running. Sakura's words stuck in her throat at his gaze's full attention on her. His brown eyes radiated a heat that warmed Sakura from the inside out, sending shivers down her spine, and his smile sped up her heart rate.

Sakura conceded to him and looked off to the side with a blush gracing her cheeks, "Your persistent."

Shinji just grinned and kept running with Sakura behind him until they reached a few feet outside of the school gates, where they slowed down to walk the rest of the distance to the sweets shop.

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><p>Sasuke followed the two figures with his eyes as they began to disappear from the schoolyard in front of them. He moved to follow the two, until the weight on his arm tugged even tighter. He looked to find what was holding him back to see Karin permanently attaching herself to his side. Karin looked up with a seemingly innocent gaze at her beloved and faithful boyfriend, "Is something wrong, Sasuke-kun?"<p>

Sasuke breathed in deeply before exhaling, "No," he stopped himself from going after the two, but not before looking back at the schoolyard to not see a glimpse of familiar pink hair that he knew.

"Leave her alone Uchiha."

Sasuke turned to see Ino also staring out at the schoolyard in front, until she turned her full gaze toward him. Ino narrowed her eyes at him, "Leave her alone. You lost whatever right you thought you had. Shinji will take much better care of Sakura than you ever could."

Ino quickly turned away from Sasuke with her hair whipping behind her. Sasuke stared at Ino, but quickly turned to stare back out to try to see if he could find the two figures that ran away from him all too soon. Sasuke narrowed his eyes into a glare, before telling Naruto to hurry it up if he still wanted ramen. Naruto followed Sasuke confused at what has just transpired, with Karin's attached form to Sasuke's arm. Tenten, Hinata, and Temari caught up to Ino, each happy that their pink-haired friend may possibly move on from her lifetime crush on Uchiha Sasuke, but also worrying that they were in for a rollercoaster of a time for their senior year.

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><p><strong>OOOOOOO is Sasuke jealous? What are these new feelings that Sakura's having?<strong>

**Once again, I'm so sorry for not updating earlier, if you want to know about the crazy changes in my life, you're more than welcome to PM me, because I find that publishing my whole life story on social media is a little...yeah...**

**Anyways, I would love reviews from you beautiful people and I do hope that you enjoy my fanfic and this new chapter! **

**An incentive to review, does anyone have an answer to the question Sakura asked her girls? Tell me in a review or feel free to PM me too!**


	8. Chapter 7

**Hello everyone! I'm so sorry for the late update, but I do hope that you enjoy my new chapter! I've been super busy with a lot of things and even in summer I haven't gotten one break at all! I'm hoping to get back into writing more soon with whatever free time I have, but we'll just see! Anyway, I hope that you enjoy, and also if you ever wanna ask questions or review, then please feel free to do so, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can! **

**I also wanted to give a shout out to S****akunanda! She's been supporting this fanfic a lot, and I thank her so much for her support! Thank you so much! **

**Also, here's to SasuSaku Month this July! If I get any free time, I would like to participate for just one day, if I can. And also, Anime Expo Day 0 starts today (it's 3 AM here). To all those who are attending have fun and enjoy! I can't go this year because of school, so please enjoy for me! Anyway, here's to the new Chapter of ISW!**

**Disclaime****r****: I do not own Naruto!  
><strong>

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><p>Chapter 7<p>

"So what'll it be?"

The perky waitress stood before both Shinji and Sakura at their table. Sakura handed her menu to the waitress, "I'll take a medium sized Fruit Matcha Soft Cream Shiratama Anmitsu and a white hot chocolate, please?"

"Sure," the waitress wrote down Sakura's order, "and for you?"

"I'll take a slice of Chocolate Mousse Cake and a hot coffee."

Writing down Shinji's order, the waitress took off with a chirpy response of bringing their order right out. Both Shinji and Sakura sat down in the small, two-person booth with neither of them speaking. A few more seconds of silence passed between the two before Sakura intelligently stuttered out the beginning of their conversation.

"Um…"

Shinji looked up at his pink-haired crush upon her beginning of the conversation. He wolfishly grinned at the shy girl in front of him. Her timid demeanor surprised him since he saw Sakura as confident in the classroom, exuberant with her friends, and calm and cool when she danced and helped injuries in the sports medicine room. Seeing this Sakura made him feel special.

"So, what are we gonna do today?"

"Huh?" Sakura looked shocked at what Shinji said. "I thought…um…I thought we…were just going to the sweets shop."

Sakura folded her hands together in her lap and looked down with a slight blush on her face. Shinji had only mentioned they were going to go to a sweets shop, so what did he mean by saying they were going to another place after this. That was not the plan he mentioned when he first dragged her out of the school! She was already shy enough as it was and this whole…'date' thing was new for her.

"Well," Shinji lifted his arms onto the table with his head in his right hand and his left folded inward, "Since today's a half day of classes, it seems like such a waste to end our date right after our short lunch."

"Don't say that!" Sakura threw her arms out in front of her to block her face from Shinji's playful gaze and his face from her view.

He raised his brow at her, "Don't say what?"

"That…that word. I don't—I can't…it just…argh!"

He already knew what word Sakura's reacted to that had her face blushing a furious red. He liked having her blush around him. It made him feel really special that he could have such an affect on her. Neither of them spoke again, until Shinji teasingly brought up the word.

"So…about our date—"

"Stop!" Sakura groaned, now covering her ears from hearing him.

Shinji laughed out at Sakura's reaction to hearing such a simply word. Sakura glared at Shinji with a blush still bright on her face, "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Haha sorry Sakura. I just…it's fun to tease you."

Sakura glowered at Shinji in front of her, crossing her arms and turning her face away in playful anger at him. All too soon, the waitress came back with their orders and placed them in front of Sakura and Shinji respectfully. She bowed and went off on her merry way saying they could ask for her if they wanted anything else.

They each took bites out of their desserts, "Oh, wow! This really is good!"

Sakura's anger dissipated and she dug into her anmitsu. Shinji smiled at her, "I'm glad you like it. I heard good reviews about this place and thought that you might like it."

Sakura stopped eating her dessert, "Yeah, I've heard good things about this place too. I thought about trying it out sometime soon with the girls the next time we went out. I'm glad that you brought me hear. Thanks."

She smiled at him sweetly before continuing to eat her dessert. Shinji smiled at her over his cup of coffee, "You're welcome."

They continued eating in silence until Shinji spoke up again.

"So," he started, "About our dat—." Sakura glowered at him over her bite of anmitsu, daring him to finish the word again.

He grinned, "Our day off from afternoon classes."

Satisfied, Sakura decided to respond, "Well, _I'm_ going to go the bookstore after this. There's a reference book that I'll need for when entrance exams come around. I figured I'd get a head start on reviewing."

"Yeesh, you're already getting a start on entrance exams? Those don't even start until January. Prep school for the college exams don't even start until the second term. Guess you are a bit of a bookworm, aren't you?"

Sakura huffed, "Well sorry for wanting to get a head start on studying. I'd prefer to know what I'm getting in to come test day than cram the night before like some people."

"You mean Naruto, right? 'Cause I take my studies very seriously. Maybe not a seriously as you, but I do make it pretty high on list."

"Naruto's not that bad," Sakura tried to defend her surrogate brother, "He just…doesn't remember when tests are."

Shinji snorted, "Sure, whatever you say."

"Anyway, I've got a reference book to pick up after this."

"Then I guess I'll just go with you."

"What?" Sakura started to cough from her drinking her hot chocolate wrong.

"Yeah, besides, I've got nothing else to do this afternoon. Hey, we can even make this a field trip. We'll stop at a whole bunch of other places too."

"But, what-what for?" Sakura didn't know what to do.

"I just need a book. There's no need to stop at other places."

"Aw come on," started Shinji, "Live a little. It wouldn't hurt to get sidetracked every once in a while."

Sakura didn't speak up. She held her cup to her mouth contemplating Shinji's offer, "Besides this is a date, isn't it?"

"Stop," Sakura groaned. She placed her cup down and looked up at Shinji. She looked into his eyes and noticed his playfulness and honesty in wanting to take her out on this…date.

"You're not gonna stop asking, are you?"

Shinji grinned deviously at the pretty pinkette, "Nope. Remember, I'm persistent."

Sakura sighed, "Well, where are we heading to first?"

* * *

><p>Never in Sakura's life had she been so sidetracked from buying a book in her entire life. After the sweets café, Shinji took Sakura down the streets where there were so many different vendors with fun little trinkets to play around with. While going from vendor to vendor, they stopped by an arcade, a photo booth, grabbed meat buns for a snack. Sakura never had so much fun doing random, ordinary things for hours on end. The sun had almost started to set when Sakura remembered that she still needed to buy her reference book. Even then, Shinji and Sakura found some way to be sidetracked in the bookstore from buying what she needed. The sun had just set when Shinji walked Sakura back to the entrance of her apartment. None of the third years really drive on the first day. One to watch out for the incoming first years, and two because they want to enjoy the last time they attend their first day of high school.<p>

"Well then Miss Bookworm, here's your stop."

Both were standing outside of Sakura's apartment. Sakura held her newly bought book hugged between her hands. She looked up at Shinji, "Thanks…for this, even if we did almost forget to buy what I originally intended to."

Shinji shrugged, "Well, when you're having fun, the whole purpose of it just seems to slip from your mind."

"Mm-hmm, whatever you say." Silence enveloped the two.

"Well," Sakura said, "I should probably head in. It's late. And it's a school night."

"I wouldn't want to keep you away from your studying after the first day of classes."

Sakura gave Shinji a playful glare, "Well…good night."

He smiled before turning around to head to his own home, "Good night, Sakura."

Shinji walked away without a second glance backward. Sakura stared at Shinji's back as he left. Just a few steps from turning the corner, Sakura called out to him, "Shinji!"

He turned at his name. Sakura smiled at him, looking around her, gathering her all of her courage, "Thank you Shinji…for the date. I had a lot of fun."

Shinji smiled back at Sakura and lifted his arm to wave at her, "Sure! I had fun too! Let's do it again!" He turned to walk away, "Okay!"

Quickly, Shinji whipped his head back around to Sakura's direction thinking that he may have been hearing things. Sakura repeated herself giving Shinji reassurance, "Okay! We'll do it again! See you tomorrow at school!"

Sakura ran to the entrance of her apartment, disappearing from Shinji's sight.

Taking a few more seconds to allow Sakura's response to sink in, he grinned widely and whooped loud enough to have some passer-byers turn in his direction stunned at his loud voice.

In Sakura's case, she opened the door to her apartment and leaned against it once inside. She hugged the reference book close to her chest and smiled widely. Shinji was cute. She looked at the non-bloomed white rose that she had carefully placed in her bag earlier that day. She went to immediately put it in a vase with water. Once that was done, Sakura looked at the flower and sighed a little bit dreamily.

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><p>The next morning started out quiet for Sakura. She arrived at school a little earlier than usual, not meeting either of her friends beforehand. She parked her jeep in the parking lot, grabbed her school bag, and made her way up to her classroom on the third level. As she settled herself into her desk, Sakura took out a binder full of notes and started to review. Although, she did not take out a notebook that pertained to her classes, instead, this was a binder that held the schedule that she created for Konoha's Dance Team. After Sakura's "tryout" for Dance Captain, she received the position, and immediately started the transition into her new captain position. She kept different binders for each grade level to assess their training and individual stats of each dance team member. She also had written out certain choreography for both class level teams and for the group team as well that she planned to have them do. Sakura scrawled certain notes on the blank paper inside of the binder and began to prepare the first years dance binder seeing as a preliminary run of clubs was happening today.<p>

Unlike other schools that advertised their club on the very first day of classes, Konoha Gauken waited until the second day of classes for clubs to start recruiting members. Even though Sakura was the Dance Team's Captain, she had left the club advertising to her underclassmen and other third year students. They had decided to keep Sakura's position as captain a secret until after school when the first preliminary assessment of clubs started.

Sakura continued to write down her thoughts and adjust the day's training to what she felt would give the first year attendees a good dose of what practices for the dance team are usually like. Konoha Gauken's dance team was well known within the area and has even won a more than a handful of competitions in the past years, sometimes making it to Nationals or placing in the top four or runner-up. For Konoha Gauken, each grade level made their own team to participate in the first, second, and third divisions of dance team competitions. There is also a group team made out of second and third years. First year dance team members have the opportunity to tryout for the group team, and on occasion, a couple or so members make it, like Sakura did in her first year being the only one. If first year members did not make the group team, they still have their individual grade level teams, but they also assist their upperclassmen in preparations for the competitions and other first year duties.

Few students started to trickle into the school and take their seats in their respective classrooms. Sakura continued to write in her first year dance binder with no interruptions, until the loudmouth blonde of a best friend stormed in.

Without Ino even pausing to drop her bag at her desk, she rushed to Sakura and threw her hands onto her desk, "Well?"

Not letting Ino disturb her, Sakura wrote down her last thought before looking at her pushy best friend, "Yes Ino?"

"Sakura!"

Ino glared at Sakura wanting to hear everything that transpired between her and Shinji yesterday after they had run off together. Temari joined the two at Sakura's desk leaning her hip against the edge.

"Sorry Sakura," Temari look exasperated at Ino, "I tried to stall her for as long as possible this morning when she realized that you're car had already been in the parking lot for the last thirty minutes."

Sakura laughed, "That must have been a pain."

"You have no idea," Temari smirked at Sakura enjoying making fun of their blonde friend.

"Hello? Eyes up here Forehead! Are you going to tell me what happened or not?"

"Wait! Don't start without me!"

Tenten rushed into the room with Hinata and Neji trailing close behind her. Not caring for whatever girls gossip about, Neji left Hinata and Tenten to pry whatever information out of Sakura they wanted. Ignoring Neji, Tenten dropped her things off of her desk and sat on top of Hinata's desk, while their shy friend settled down in her seat. After making herself comfortable, Tenten looked in Sakura's direction, "Okay, I'm ready."

Sakura rolled her eyes at her friends' antics. It was like they were starved animals whose only food were Sakura's juicy details about her "date" with Shinji yesterday.

"Our date was…"

It was cruel, but Sakura stalled a little wanting to see what her friends lean in anticipation to hear what she had to say. It was kind of nice to be the center of gossip for once. It made her feel like she had gossip worth sharing, which she did, but she couldn't give away all the details now, could she?

"It was…"

"It was what? Forehead!"

And Ino's frustration was just to die for.

"It was fun."

Neither of the girls said a word, of course that didn't stop one blonde from letting her aggravation of her friend's small details get the best of her, "That's it? It was fun? What about the details?"

Ino snapped her fingers and started a list, "Where did he take you? Did he pay? How long were you together? Was he a gentleman? Did his eyes wander? Were there comments on what a cute couple you were? Did he kiss you at the end? Did _you _kiss _him_? Where are the details Forehead?"

"Whoa Ino, calm down. What is this an interrogation?"

"I gotta agree with Ino on this one Sakura. Come on, tell us! We promise we won't make fun of it or anything. Please tell us the juicy stuff." Tenten pressured Sakura along with Ino to tell them more about the date that Shinji ran off with Sakura on. Even Temari and Hinata were looking at Sakura in anticipation to hear what transpired between the two.

After knowing that Shinji declared his crush to Sakura and was looking to pursue a relationship with her, they had to be in the know! It was like…a must!

"I…really don't know what else to tell you," Sakura looked between all of her girlfriends. "I had fun. A lot of fun. And I…wouldn't…mind doing it again."

Hinata, Tenten, Ino, and Temari looked at their pink-haired friend. Sakura had never been on a real date before where her crush on Uchiha Sasuke had lingered in the back of her mind. It seemed that Takeru Shinji was so good for Sakura that he could keep Sakura from even thinking about her one-sided love of the dark-haired Uchiha brat. Not only could he make Sakura want to go on another date with him, he was good looking, had good grades, a great athlete with a great body, playful and caring personality. Sakura could not go wrong in getting Shinji as a boyfriend. Ino approved of her matchmaking skills, even if she didn't really have a hand in anything other than pushing Sakura to go out with the guy.

"Then you should go out with him on a date again soon."

Sakura looked up at Ino and smiled, "I think I will."

Proud and satisfied that her best friend's love life might actually be moving in a direction, Ino excused herself back to her desk, patting herself on the back for a job well done.

Temari rolled her eyes, "I'll go over there and make sure that her head doesn't get too full of hot air."

Temari left Sakura's desk leaving Tenten and Hinata to chat before the bell rang.

"So," began Tenten, "Was he a good kisser?"

"We didn't kiss!" Sakura laughed good naturedly at Tenten's waggling eyebrows and teasing smile.

"But you enjoyed, right?" Hinata spoke up, "You're not just saying so to satisfy Ino's attempt at getting over Sasuke, right?"

Sakura smiled at Hinata's concern, "I really enjoyed myself. Ino's got nothing to do with it."

Hinata smiled, "I'm glad."

The three girls continued to chat for a couple more minutes before the bell chimed. Tenten moved away to her seat, leaving Hinata and Sakura to themselves. Just as the bell entered its final tone, the door opened to reveal Naruto and Sasuke panting and hunched over out of breathe. Both made it to their seats behind Hinata and Sakura and fanned themselves with their hands.

Sakura and Hinata looked the boys with their brow raised, looking back at each other, and then looking back at the boys again.

"A-Are you alright, Naruto-kun?"

"Y-Yeah…we're…we're fine," Naruto continued to pant out of breathe.

Sasuke took out a water bottle and downed a good portion of it, still heaving deep breaths.

"You guys look like were chased by a Tyrannosaurus Rex and ran ten miles to escape from it."

Sakura was confused as to why her two male childhood friends walked into class just as the bell rang. Naruto, she could understand was late on most days and ran to make it to school on time less he wanted to be chewed out by Tsunade, who was not a happy person whenever things happened dealing with Naruto. Sasuke on the other hand is usually always prompt for class, sometimes even coming as early as Sakura. Of course his new relationship with Karin served as some of his unusual tardiness on occasion, but never to this extent.

"My car…" Naruto heaved a couple of deep breaths taking the water bottle that Hinata offered him, "Thank Hinata-chan. As I was saying, my car broke down this morning after I picked up Sasuke from his place."

That explained everything. Sasuke's home…mansion was further away then most of their other friends' homes. With Sasuke's affluent family, they had their own private property with other Uchiha family members, which was much further out of the way in getting to Konoha Gauken. By car, it takes twenty minutes to get from Sasuke's house to school and vice versa, but if you're walking, it takes just a little under an hour to make it to class on time. Sakura's guess was that Sasuke called Naruto to come pick him up, like the good best friend that he is. But, knowing Naruto, he overslept and made it to Sasuke's late. Their barely making it to school on time would not have been a problem with the outrageous, but speedy way that Naruto drives, honestly, how the boy never got pulled over, Sakura would never understand. But, if Naruto's car broke down when he was already running late to pick up Sasuke, then both boys really did almost fun about ten or miles until they made it to class.

"You could have called me Sasuke-kun. I would have picked you up on time and you wouldn't have had to suffer Naruto's car breaking down…again."

"I swear I'm gonna get it fixed!"

"You said that last month," growled Sasuke, "Either get it fixed or dump the damn thing."

Naruto gasped, "How dare you utter such words about Naruko! I will not have you insult her in my presence!"

"It's a car Naruto."

"It's my baby."

"That died on you when you needed her."

"She did not die! She just…needs some repairs alright! I'll get her fixed!"

"Hn."

Sasuke glowered at Naruto for a moment more, before turning to look at Sakura. He averted his eyes quickly then swallowed heavily, "I didn't…want to bother you, so I didn't call. Next time."

Sakura smiled brightly at Sasuke, "Of course! Just let me know and I'll pick you up in a flash!"

Sasuke smirked slightly before everyone turned their heads to see Kakashi walk into class holding a stack of thick packets.

"Alright class, let's settle down without all of the theatrics, hmm?"

Kakashi looked over in the back corner where the four were, setting his packets down on the desk.

"Now," Kakashi stood in front of the class, "I know it's only the second day of classes, but you'll be taking a test to see what you have learned in your math classes in the last couple years of high school.

Groans from students could be heard around the room, "This won't be graded. It's just to assess where you are in your math skills and see what you should be looking to improve. You are third years now, so you might want to start thinking about the colleges that you're going to and what scores you need to get in to the college of your choice."

"No!"

Everyone in class, including Kakashi, turned to the back of the room at Naruto's loud exclamation of not taking the exam.

"I refuse to take this exam after the morning that I had! No way Kakashi-sensei, you can't make me. I don't wanna take the stupid test."

Kakashi sighed, "It's not a question on whether or not you want to take it Naruto. You are going to take it and that's final. Besides, it's not going to be graded."

"Nope! No way not happening. Assign it for homework or something Kakashi-sensei. Let's just take it easy today and relax."

Naruto leaned back in his chair, threw his arms behind his head, and his legs on top of his desk. He closed his eyes hoping that Kakashi would see reason. Why would anyone assign a test, even if its not graded, on the second day of classes? Obviously, Kakashi-sensei was playing a trick on everyone.

"You're right, Naruto."

The class turned away from Naruto and whipped their heads back to Kakashi. Kakashi was actually agreeing with something that Naruto said. The world had to be ending. But Naruto believed Kakashi to have seen reason, "Thanks Kaka—"

"After taking today's _now-graded_ exam, I'll be assigned fifty review questions as homework tonight that I would like to be accomplished by tomorrow before class starts. If even one out of the fifty questions is skipped over, then…well, I'll leave that up to your imagination."

The class turned back around to glare at Naruto with the burning flames in their eyes. Outraged, Naruto tried to protest, "But—"

"Should we make that one hundred review questions for homework tonight?"

"Shut up idiot!"

Sakura smacked Naruto upside over the head hoping the loudmouth blonde would stop digging their graves even deeper than the already were.

"No? Alright, then I'm passing out the _tests_. Make sure to answer them as best as you can! This _is _for a grade!"

.

.

.

.

.

For the second time that day, Naruto ran as if his life depended on it, away from the angry mob that was his class. Where they got the torches and pitchforks, he would never know.

* * *

><p>Sakura surveyed the group of first years before her. It looked like a good turn out this year with twenty-five new members. Of course, Konoha's Dance Team doesn't exclude any new members from joining. Anyone can join as long as they like to dance. Second and third years teach the first years who are somewhat beginner dancers the basics and foundations of every dance so that they can get a feel of what they are getting into. In front of Sakura and her Vice Captain stood twenty-five first years members wanting to join the club. It seemed like a good majority of the new members were all female, as is expected, but a handful of new male members also seemed interested in joining. Since Konoha's Dance Club was majority female, Sakura would do what she could to teach the male first years their choreography and training, but she would also reserve certain days for the other second and third year male members to train the first year boys. For school festivals where the dance club would perform in, they would usually recruit male friends from sports teams to help them out with certain dances if they were in need of male members if the dance team had less male members than needed. Although, Sakura and Ino may have to share the amount of male sports team members that they could recruit since Ino's cheer team would also need spotters and muscle to catch her girls. Meh, they'll figure it out.<p>

"Alright socializing is over now," Sakura clapped her hands to bring the new and old members of the dance club to attention, "My name is Haruno Sakura and I'm the captain of the dance team here."

The first year students immediately turned their attention towards Sakura, while the rest of the second and third years gave her the floor.

"I'm really happy with this year's turn out and I hope that you'll all enjoy being a part of Konoha's Dance Team. Today, I'll give you some background on what some of our expectations are and what we do when it comes to competitions. After the brief overview, you can ask as many questions as you like and I will answer them as best as I can. Once questions are over, we're going to start in a preliminary test right away. Don't worry if you don't know how to dance or this is your first time, we're not judging you on your performance. Today we'll just be going over some warm-ups and drills. Tomorrow, we will do a full field test in all the areas that we'll go through with you today. Remember, we're not grading you or judging you on your skills, we just want to see where everyone is to see how we work out the teams come competition time. As of right now, does anyone have any questions?"

No one raised their hand, urging Sakura to continue her spiel, "As I said my name is Sakura and I'm your captain. Standing here with me is my vice captain, Matsuri. If I am every absent, then Matsuri will be the one in charge of all team practices and she will relay everything that happens to me."

Matsuri raised her hand to wave enthusiastically, "Hi! Just call me Matsuri! If anyone ever has any questions than feel free to let me know. And, if you see our Captain here immersed in some sort of textbook or mumbling to herself for too long about choreography, then feel free to disrupt her. She tends to be a bit stubborn about that sort of stuff."

Sakura looked over at Matsuri playfully, while Matsuri just smiled widely in Sakura's direction. The first years giggled and the second and third years laughed at Matsuri's teasing.

"One more word out of you and you'll be running laps with the first years today."

"Ooh," teased Matsuri, "Scary."

Sakura smiled and then turned back to the first years, "Ignore her. Anyway, we'll get started with a brief introduction. For our dance club, we divide each grade level into their own respective teams. During competition, each grade level team will enter into as many dance categories as they would like, but we recommend on entering into one or two because of the amount of choreography that you would need to memorize. As a first year, you will be trained in all of the basics and foundations for dance whether you are at a beginner or intermediate level of dancing. We will dance through a variety of different styles, a couple of examples being hip-hop, jazz, salsa, etc. We do train each freshman in the course of ballet in order to discipline your bodies to achieve the forms and styles that we want in our dances. Ballet is the beginning of all dances, and without it we would not have been able to develop the new styles of dance today, so I wouldn't complain too much about it. It is rare that we do a full ballet dance for competition, so sometimes we start out with something like ballet and change it into something else.

"First years are entered into competition and are allowed to compete. They are trained in the same regime that all second and third years do and I don't show any mercy during practice time. Konoha's Dance Team also has a Group Team that is composed of second and third years and entered into the highest tier in competition. These competitions are some times far away, but we manage. We also require that first years travel with us to get a sense of what it would be to travel as the Group Team and to assist the group team members with anything that they need. First years are allowed to tryout for the Group Team when competition comes around. Tryouts are always held for the Group Team on a regular basis depending on what the choreography is, so not all second and third year members are constantly on the team unless they make the cut for the choreography and group member size. Choreography for the group team and third year team is done by me, second and first years may choreography their own choreography, but must be checked a month in advanced between competition. One second year, third year, and myself will assist in creating the first years choreography and give pointers where need be.

"Practices are three times a week. We also practice during the summer, as that's when many of the competitions are held. If you have chronic injuries or acute ones, you can come to me to let me know of them at the end of today's practice. You are allowed to bring ankle and knee braces or whatever else you need for injuries during practice time. We will accommodate you, but we do ask that you do not wear your braces during the actual competition, because they count us down on that stuff. We have a good sports medicine team here at Konoha Gakuen who take sports injuries seriously, and I'll be around as a Sports Medicine member to assist with taping and icing when needed. Dance outfits will be provided with club funds as will all accommodations and team sports wear will be available for ordering tomorrow. Are they any questions?"

A few hands went up with normal questions to clarify certain points that may seem unclear to the first year students. Some second and third years would interject with their own pieces of advice to the first year students. None of the new members walked out at all during Sakura's speech, which meant that they all had a genuine interest in wanting to be apart of Konoha's Dance Team. That may change after the first day's preliminary drills. Sakura smiled at each of them, "Okay, then let's get started, shall we? First, we'll do five laps around the track to warm-up our bodies, a fifteen-minute self-stretch, and then we'll go into preliminary drills. There is no dress code for practice wear. You can come in whatever you want as long as it is decent, comfortable to dance in, and does not show too much skin, girls…and boys no taking off shirts during practice."

"But where's the fun in that?"

Sakura turned around to see Shinji leaning against the dance room's door in his own practice wear for the basketball team.

"Don't you have a team to run?" Sakura placed her hands on her hips turning around to fully face Shinji. She tried her best not to appear embarrassed in front of him or her team.

He righted himself up and walked over to Sakura, "I am running them. Or they're running themselves. I sent them on warm-up laps around the track. I've got a couple more minutes before I have to return to the new members."

"Hmm, well, aren't you taking it easy? That doesn't reflect very well on your captainship."

Sakura turned back around to tell the first years to make their way onto the track, "Is that the dance club's preliminary drills? Let me see."

Shinji made to take the binder out of Sakura's hands, but Sakura quickly moved the binder out of reach, "Nope. This is secret and you can't know."

"Aw come on. Nobody knows what type of preliminary drills the dance team does. The same goes for the cheer team. Do you guys keep it secret or something?"

Neither of them regarded the looks from the dance club members around them. Some were amused and others we curious as to what their relationship was and the secrecy about the Dance Team preliminary skills test.

"Yes, we do. It's a tradition for both cheer and dance teams to keep secret their beginning training. Now, will you go and do your job as a captain and let me do mine."

Sakura pushed her hands on Shinji's back to shove him out of the dance club's studio, "So bossy," Shinji smiled deviously at Sakura.

"Will you just go already?"

Sakura needed to get him out of there. His presence was making it hard for her to act normal around him after their date yesterday that made her heart race just a bit more than before.

"Alright alright, I'm going," Shinji made his own way out of the room.

"Thank you, now first years—"

"Don't forget about that date you promised me!"

"Shinji!"

Sakura turned around to where Shinji exited and disappeared from. Her face held a bright blush that many of the other members noticed. Clearing her throat and taking a couple of deep breaths, Sakura told the first years to make their way to the track. The second and third year members got to covering the windows in the room with the dark opaque curtains and looking around for recording devices so that no one could see what the preliminary drills consisted it. It really was tradition to keep what the preliminary drills a secret. There was a reason Konoha Gauken's Dance Team and grade levels won as many competitions as they did, and the drills were the start of it.

As the first years got on the track to warm-up before their five laps, Sakura stood off to the side with two other third years and Matsuri making notes. Once they were ready, Sakura gave them the mark and the first years set off. Sakura and the rest watched the first years to assess their stamina levels, injuries, and their timing of how fast they ran. While doing so, Matsuri approached Sakura, "So…"

"So what?"

"Nothing, just…you and Shinji," Matsuri started, "I totally didn't see that one coming."

"We're not…together. Shinji's…just a friend."

Matsuri looked skeptically at Sakura with her blushing face, "Uh-huh, sure, whatever you say."

"Oh, quiet you."

They turned back to watch the first years who were half way around the track on their first lap. The assessment was going fine until Matsuri opened up her mouth, "Sakura and Shinji sitting in a tree!"

"I swear if you continue that song, I will have you running twice as many laps than the first years, and you'll have to do them in under 15 minutes."

Matsuri quieted herself. Pleased, Sakura continued to watch the first years run, "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"That's it!"

* * *

><p>"Alright everyone, I think that about wraps it up for today. Tomorrow we'll be doing an assessment to see how advanced your skills are. We'll start off with warm-up laps around the track, a stretching period, and then move into the final drills. Any questions?"<p>

Sakura wiped her brow with her sweatband on her arm. She looked behind her to see every new first year member sitting or hunched over on the floor panting and sweating like they never had before. Even the second and third years who had gone through the preliminary drills the for the past couple of years were panting and out of breath, chugging down gallons of cool water and Gatorade. The dance room was hot and stuffy from all of the dancing that the members did, especially with the black curtains consuming the hot sun from outside.

"I think you killed them," Matsuri said, herself also panting and catching her breath. She was worn out, but not as much as the other third year members.

"Do you want more laps around the track?"

Matsuri looked away and whistled a tune as if she didn't say a thing.

Satisfied, Sakura spoke up to the dance team members as they gathered themselves, "Same time tomorrow for everyone. First years, you did really well today. We hope that each and every one of you enjoy our club and we look forward to dancing with you. If you have any questions, me and a few of your senpai will stay behind to answer them. Sakura dismissed everyone else. Some of the first years approached Sakura or other third and second years with questions, but once they were all answered, everyone went to their respective locker rooms to change back into their school uniforms.

As the last dance team member made their way out of the dance room, Sakura, as captain, checked for any belongings left behind, turned off all of the lights, and made her own way to the locker room to change out of her dance clothes.

Once she was changed, Sakura made her way out of the girls locker room to see Shinji leaning against the wall between both dressing rooms.

"Yo," Shinji lifted his hand in a mock salute to Sakura.

Sakura smiled at him, "Is the basketball team already done with their practice?"

"Yeah, it wasn't bad at all. There are some really good first years, so we may have a shot at placing high in the tournament. But we don't know if we'll take the trophy, that all depends on how much we practice."

"Ah, spoken like a true captain," Sakura started to walk toward the parking lot with Shinji following her to walk side by side.

"How's the dance team? Scare off any first years with the brutal preliminary assessment?"

Shinji teased Sakura. He knew that Sakura could be very serious, especially in her studies, so he figured that her strictness and motivation to succeed followed her in her captainship for the dance team.

"I didn't scare anyone off, but the first years did really well in keeping up with everyone. It seems like the other schools will have some competition when they start competing with other schools seriously."

"Wow nice. Looks like both of our clubs have some good first year members this years."

"Yeah, we do."

The conversation died down for a bit before starting up again, "By the way Shinji, why are you following me?"

Shinji usually rode a bike to school instead of driving a car. He lived so close that it was a waste of gas to drive. Sometimes he walked, but more often than not, he biked.

"The bike racks are on the other side of the parking lot, aren't them?"

"Yeah," Shinji nodded, "But I wanted to walk you to your car."

Still not used to the attention that Shinji was showing her, Sakura blushed, "You don't have to do that. It's not unsafe within the school or anything."

He shrugged, "It could be unsafe, you never know who lurks around here after hours. Besides, I wanted to spend more time with you."

Blushing even more, Sakura didn't speak, but continued her steady pace walking to her car, and Shinji still following her.

In a matter of minutes, they made it to Sakura's jeep. She opened her trunk to place her school bag and dance bag inside. Once she did so, Sakura turned to Shinji.

"Thanks for walking me to my car. You didn't have to."

Sakura was still embarrassed by the whole Shinji confessing his feelings and wanting to date her thing. It was so new to her that she didn't know how to act anymore.

"Not a problem, besides I wanted to."

Flushing even more, Sakura cleared her throat, "Yeah, okay. Anyway, I should probably head out now. Kakashi assigned us a ton of math problems to solve for tomorrow by first period, and they look really hard after the skills assessment he handed out to us, so that'll take up most of my time tonight."

"Ah yes, I heard about that. Naruto was complaining in the locker room about how unfair Kakashi-sensei is."

"If only Naruto would keep his mouth shut, we wouldn't have to do these problems in the first place."

Sometimes, Naruto just couldn't make her life easy.

"Well, I'll let you go, but before that," Shinji reached into his school bag, "You said you wouldn't mind another date, right?"

Sakura nodded her head, "Yeah," blushing, "I wouldn't mind."

Shinji grinned widely, "Then, would you like to go to the amusement park this Saturday?"

He held out two tickets, "Since it's the first week of classes, we don't have Saturday class until next week, which gives us a longer holiday to enjoy. Whatdya say?"

"Sure," Sakura smiled, "The amusement park sounds like fun to me. "

"Great! We can talk about it more another time. I don't want to hold you up driving to your place, especially with rush hour approaching."

"Yeah, I should be on my way. We can talk about it later though."

Sakura made her way to the driver seat of her seat, but before she got it, she turned around to Shinji, "Actually, we should…exchange numbers."

Shinji blinked. He was a bit stunned, "Okay…okay sure!"

"That way we can talk about it over the phone to and make plans."

Both Sakura and Shinji took out their phones and exchanged numbers. Once that was done, Shinji left to the bike racks and Sakura drove off back to her apartment. As Sakura drove off, she thought about giving Shinji her number. She was glad she did so. She couldn't make Shinji do all of the work in asking her out, she had to give in too, especially if she want whatever was between to work out. Sakura smiled. Not only was he cute, but he was good for her, and maybe she started thinking last night, that maybe he could be the person that she could develop feelings for after her broken heart.

* * *

><p>Since Sakura's mother was overseas a lot for work, Sakura almost lived by herself. In living alone, Sakura learned how to cook and provide her own meals for herself without having to buy convenience store food or to-go boxes of food. Once Sakura arrived at her apartment, she got down to taking a bath after her long day of school and dance team practice. After her bath, she dressed in some lounging capri sweatpants and a tank top. She started doing the little homework and reading that her teachers gave her and then got to work on Kakashi's massive math questions packet that seemed much thicker than the fifty questions he threatened them with. Nevertheless, Sakura got down to work.<p>

Being the smart cookie that Sakura was, she breezed through the smaller amounts of her homework before going to Kakashi's math questions. Once she reached her twenty-fifth question, Sakura deemed that it was a good stopping place to start making dinner for herself. It was around 7:30 at night, when Sakura took out the ingredients to make a simple dinner of pasta with some vegetables and meat. But, before Sakura could get the ingredients out of her fridge, a knock was heard at her door.

Confused, Sakura went to her door. She wasn't expecting anyone, so she didn't understand why anyone would be knocking on her door so late on a school night. She looked through the eyehole that the door provided for her and rolled her eyes. After unlocking the door, Sakura placed look at her new company questioningly, "What are you two doing here?"

Outside of her door stood Naruto and Sasuke in their own lounging clothes. Naruto lived on the first floor, where single room apartments were, with his foster father. Being so close to one another, Naruto and Sakura frequent the other's place quite often, but usually with a warning of appearing beforehand.

"Hey Sakura-chan! Long time no see!"

Naruto was as loud as ever, "We saw each other in class today Naruto. I even hit you, remember?"

He laughed hesitantly, "Haha yeah, that's right. You sure have a mean punch Sakura-chan!"

Rolling her eyes again, she looked at Naruto and Sasuke, "So, what's up?"

Sasuke lifted a large three-tier bento box wrapped in a handkerchief, "We brought dinner."

"A sorta…peace offering by Mikoto-oba-san. Please don't hurt me from what happened in math today."

Sakura raised her brow at Naruto's terrified form. He was probably afraid of her hitting him again, "Okay…well then come in. I never turn down Mikoto-san's homemade meals."

Sakura opened the door wider for Naruto and Sasuke to pass. They took off their shoes and placed the indoor slippers on their feet. Making their way to Sakura's living room, Sakura grabbed some plates, chopsticks, napkins, and drinks for the three of them. Once the three were settle down at the coffee table in Sakura's living with the magnificent spread of home cooked food by Sasuke's mother, they said their blessing and started to pick at the food.

"So," Sakura bit into a piece of shrimp tempura, "Not that I don't love your guys' company or Mikoto-san's food, but what are you doing here so late?"

Naruto inhaled a couple more bits of food while Sasuke remained sitting and eating quietly until Naruto turned to Sakura and bowed down with his head to the floor, "Help me Sakura-chan! Please! You're the only person that I can count on!"

'_Say no damn it! Say no!'_

"Fine."

'_Ugh!'_

* * *

><p>"Sakura-chan…" whined Naruto.<p>

A tick started on Sakura's forehead, "Yes Naruto?"

'_This is why you say no!'_

"What's a…a…log…loga…logarithm?" Naruto squinted his eyes at the math problem in front of him. Sighing heavily, Sakura looked over Naruto's shoulder and gave him a scathing glare that Naruto shrunk away from.

"You're only on question 5?"

Naruto whined again, "But this is hard! I don't even remember what we learned last year, isn't that the whole point of learning it last semester, so we don't have to do it this year?"

Sakura smacked her hand against her forehead, one of these days she was going to kill Naruto.

She took a pencil and sketched out a draft of what Naruto needs to do on scratch paper, "Here, for this, section, you need to…"

Sakura explained logs in the simplest way possible to Naruto until he felt that he could do the rest of the sub questions on his own. Kakashi did assign fifty math review questions, they also have between 3-7 sub questions in each category to go over the material and make sure we actually know it. That's why the packet was so thick.

Sakura sighed once more, "If you hadn't been an idiot and just listened to what Kakashi-sensei was trying to teach us, then maybe we wouldn't have to solve these math questions and I could relax instead of tear my hair out over here.

"Aw, but you love me Sakura-chan!" Naruto smiled brightly at Sakura, "You'd help me out no matter what! Unlike Sasuke-teme over there, who refused to help me with one problem when I first asked him."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at his dark-haired friend before returning to his work with a thoughtful gaze at the questions.

"That's because I'm nice, but don't expect this help every time you get us in trouble with the teachers during class. Honestly, why am I even the one stuck helping you? I should have done what Sasuke told you and just said no."

"You're too soft," Sasuke spoke up not once stopping from doing his math packet.

"Next time you should just leave the dobe to fail. He doesn't have anyone else to blame but himself for being inept at learning."

"Hey!" Naruto looked up at Sasuke and pointed, "I can hear you! You wanna take this outside."

Sasuke looked up from his work to glare at Naruto. Before both boys got into another one of their arguments, Sakura smacked Naruto on the back of his head, "Will you focus? Hurry up and finish already will ya? I'd like to sleep at some point tonight."

Naruto rubbed his head and grumbled about Sakura hitting him so much in one day, but returned to his work trying to concentrate on the math problems in front of him. Sasuke also returned to his work, making it look like he wasn't roused by a challenge from his blonde best friend. Sighing again, but glad for the quiet, Sakura finished up the last few problems of her math packet. It wasn't as hard as Sakura had thought at first, and she remembered more than she thought. But, she wasn't expecting to finish the work so late and to have company while finishing.

Sakura stretched her arms upward letting a few joints pop in her shoulders and spine.

"Are you done already Sakura-chan?" Naruto questioned looking over Sakura's packet, "Wow, you're writing is so neat."

"No peeking Naruto. Once you've finished your own work, then you can check it, but not until you've solved everything you're self."

Put down by the thought of not being able to copy his smart pink-haired friend's homework, Naruto turned back to his work. After seeing that Naruto really was working, and it seemed like he was making progress with what he did know in the packet, Sakura decided to double check her work and make sure that everything she had was correct. Sakura was going over her answers for a few minutes, until she saw movement out of the corner of her right eye. Sasuke had his hand in his hair looking at one of the problems on the last page of the packet. Without intruding into his space, Sakura peeked over to see which problem he was having trouble with. Noticing it, Sakura nodded to herself mentally that she also had the same trouble, but then remember something from her math notes last year about that particular problem.

"Something wrong, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura looked over at her cru—friend. Friend, he was a friend.

Sasuke looked up and straight at Sakura. Sakura swallowed heavily and tried to hold down the reddening of her cheeks and from averting her eyes at Sasuke's intense eyes. Clearing her throat to not stutter in front of him, Sakura asked, "I had some trouble with that problem too. Would you like some help?"

Sasuke continued to stare at Sakura before replying, "No, it's fine. I can do it myself."

She nodded, "Right, of course. Well…if you need some help…just let me know."

Sakura smiled at him before returning her eyes to reviewing her answers. Sasuke had his pride as an Uchiha family member; he didn't want to seem like he didn't know how to solve a math problem that would be a breeze for others. A few minutes later, Sasuke called out to her, "Sakura.'

Sakura's head turned so fast to Sasuke's direction at his calling her name, "Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

He didn't speak. He continued to avert his eyes from her green ones before looking at her again, "How…how do you do this problem?"

Softly, Sakura smiled and moved a bit over to where Sasuke was so that she could get a better look at how he was solving the problem. Once she was seating right next to the dark-haired boy, she looked at his application to the problem and found that he was very close to the answer, but he was missing a step in between.

She took her pencil and brought her hand to hover over his math packet, "You've almost got it. See you're just missing this step here. Once you correct for that, then you've got the right answer, see?"

Sakura turned from the problem in front of them to look at Sasuke only to find that she had brought her face closer to his in the process helping him. Now, both of their faces were only centimeters apart before Sakura's forehead could graze the underside of his nose. Both Sasuke and Sakura didn't move from their spots, continuing to stare at each other in their close proximity. Sakura gasped quietly while Sasuke looked down to see full into Sakura's green eyes then moving to the parting of her lips. All too soon, the moment between the two of them broke, before Sakura pulled away from Sasuke' space.

She cleared her throat, "Sorry about that. But anyway, you got how to do the problem?"

Sasuke also cleared his throat and nodded responding with his usual grunt.

An awkward silence passed between the two of them, before Sakura suddenly got up, "I'll go make us some tea."

Sakura walked to the kitchen, where she was still insight of the living room. Upon walking away to the kitchen, Sasuke's eyes followed her every movement, not once moving from Sakura's form.

"I saw that."

Sasuke whipped his head towards Naruto's direction, who was solving the problems that he could. Sasuke grunted, "Saw what?"

"That," Naruto looked up at his best friend, "That…tension between the two of you."

Sasuke looked away, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, well you better figure out what I'm talking about and fast, 'cause if not Sakura's gonna get taken away from you." Naruto scoffed before returning to his work.

Sasuke scoffed back at his blonde best friend. There was nothing there between him and Sakura. And even if there was, he couldn't because his girlfriend was Karin. He liked Karin. Sakura was…Sakura. Sakura may have feelings for him, but Sasuke knew that Sakura would never do something to ruin Sasuke's relationship.

Even if she did confess her love to him

Besides, Sakura confessed that she loved him. Love doesn't just fade with time, so he understood that Sakura was still getting over it, and he respected her space. He didn't want to lose her friendship over something so trivial as him getting a girlfriend. They've been friends for a long time, and he cherished their friendship. And again, Sakura _loved_ _him_. There's no way that anyone else would take Sakura away from him.

Sasuke finally finished all of the problems, and started to review his own work while Naruto still struggled with finishing his packet. Then, Sasuke heard a buzzing noise. He looked to where Sakura was previously sitting and noticed that her phone had lit up with a new message. Not seeing the harm in letting Sakura know she had a message and from whom, Sasuke picked up her phone and slid the screen open to see whom the message was from.

His grip on Sakura's pink iphone tightened. He glared at the name at the top of the message screen so intense that the phone could have burst into flames from Sasuke's eyes.

There in bright letters was Takeru Shinji's name, the one person who seemed as if he could steal Sakura away from him. His grip tightened even further on the phone, until a voice interrupted him, "Did someone message me Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke glanced up to see Sakura still in the kitchen preparing the tea for them. He shook his head, "No sorry, wrong phone. It was mine that buzzed."

"Okay," Sakura being none the wiser.

As she returned with the tea, Sakura questioned, "By the way, it's pretty late. You're not going to drive back to your place this late are you Sasuke-kun?"

"Nah the bastard's gonna sleepover at my place. Save him the trouble."

"What did end up happening to your car by the way?"

Conversation between Naruto and Sakura continued as Naruto still worked on his packet with Sasuke barely participating as usual. It gave Sasuke enough time to delete the message from Sakura's inbox before looking like he was actually paying attention to what his friends were saying.

.

.

.

.

The next day, Shinji asked Sakura if she ever got his message about what time they should meet at the theme park. She didn't and they checked to see if that both of their numbers were correct in their phones. Then, they set up a time to meet on Saturday at the amusement park.

Sasuke waited for Shinji and Sakura to part ways before turning the corner toward his class. His knuckles were slowly losing circulation from the tight grip he had them clenched in.

* * *

><p>Sakura arrived at the steps of the theme park a couple of minutes before 10 o'clock. A lot of families, couples, groups of friends, and young children were already making their way up the stairs to the theme park entrance. Before climbing the steps, Sakura took a deep breath in and then exhaled out. Since it was a day off of school, Sakura put a little more effort into her outfit with her going out on a date an all. Although, since it was an amusement park and Shinji and her were bound to be walking all day, Sakura made herself as comfortable as possible with her outfit choice.<p>

Sakura donned a pair of red jean shorts, a three-quarters white opaque t-shirt, and a black vest that was left unbuttoned. She had a long pendant necklace hanging her neck, with a watch, hair ties, and a few bracelets on her wrists. A pair of black high-top converse covered her feet. Her short hair was left alone and Sakura carried her phone, money, and ID in a small silver purse that draped across. If said date wasn't at the amusement park, then maybe Sakura would have allowed Ino to barge into her room at good knows what time in the morning and dress her up in a skirt or dress and shoes, that were completely useless for walking around in all day. She loved Ino and her fashion advice, but sometimes a girl's gotta rely on her own fashion instincts.

At 10 o'clock exactly Sakura made it up the steps and immediately started looking for Shinji. Even though she was right on time, it didn't always mean that he would be. Maybe she should have done the "fashionably late" strategy and meet him a few minutes after the meet time so it didn't seem like she was too eager. Although, she didn't arrive early, so it didn't show that she was eager to go out with him or anything. She just showed up on time.

Wait…what does "on time" mean? Did that mean Sakura was eager to meet Shinji? Or did it mean something else? What if he expected her to dress more girly since it was a…a date and all? Has she messed it up already? Sakura's thoughts started to swirl around in her head, "Don't think too much or you'll get a headache before we even get inside of the park."

Sakura look up to see Shinji standing before her in casual clothes. He wore a pair of light faded wash blue jeans that fitted his legs, a casual short-sleeved black spread collar button down t-shirt with a white shirt underneath, and gray tennis shoes. He carried a one-strap backpack over his shoulders on his back.

"Hey," Sakura recovered herself. She was glad that Shinji was there when she was. She really did start to over think everything. Stupid Ino and her gossip magazines.

"Were you waiting long?"

Shinji shook his head, "Not at all. Just got here a couple of minutes ago. I saw you come up from the stairs and made my way towards you. Guess you didn't notice me until now, huh?"

"Yeah. Guess a lot of people are here today."

Sakura was a little nervous being in such a crowded place. She hoped that she and Shinji didn't get separated during their time, but they weren't kids who would get lost from their parents and their friends. They could totally handle themselves just find.

"We could hold hands, so that we don't get separated."

Shinji looked off in the distance thoughtfully turning away from what Sakura's answer may be.

"Yeah," Sakura answered with a small smile, "We could do that."

Her nervousness that she felt when she woke up this morning disappeared and Sakura started to relax around Shinji more like when they went out after school early in the week.

"Well," Shinji held his hand out to Sakrua, "Shall we go on inside?"

Sakura nodded. She went to put her hand in Shinji's—

"Oi Sakura-chan!"

Both Shinji and Sakura turned toward the loud voice. Sakura knew that voice anywhere. It could only belong to one of two blondes and she was sure that Ino's high-pitched soprano voice did not sound like that.

Approaching the two were Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke, and Karin. Naruto was waving his arms wildly at Sakura, while Hinata was blushing madly and looking over in Sakura's direction nervously. Karin had herself latched onto Sasuke's arm and Sasuke just looked like his normal self, ignoring Karin's tightening grip on his arm.

"Hey! I didn't know that you were gonna be here today!"

Naruto shouted loudly. He was genuinely surprised that Sakura was there and with Shinji nonetheless, "Did you know Hinata-chan?"

Hinata flushed even more than she already was, "W-Well I-I, um…Sakura mentioned that s-she would be g-going to the amusement park w-with Takeru-san today. B-But I-I didn't know that it would be t-this one."

Hinata looked over in Sakura's direction apologetically for Naruto interrupting her date. Sakura smiled back at the girl, "So, what are you all doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious Sakura?" Karin spoke in a haughty sort of way, "Sasuke-kun and I are here on a date together. Naruto just decided to tag along with Hinata over there."

"Ah I see," Sakura tried really hard not to punch Karin in the face, "Same with us. Shinji and I were just about to go inside."

"Hey, I've got an idea!" suggested Naruto.

'_No! This time it's a no! No! No! No!'_

"Why don't we all go into the amusement park together? It's more fun when there's more people to spend time with together! The more the merrier, right?"

"Actually, Naruto we're—" Sakura didn't finished her sentence when she felt Hinata latch onto her arm. She looked to her shy friend to find her boring her eyes into Sakura. Hinata's pearl eyes were begging Sakura not to leave her alone with Naruto.

"Why not?" Sakura turned at hearing Sasuke speak.

"With a bigger group, we won't get separated as easily."

"What are you saying Sasuke-kun?" Karin was scandalized that her already extra baggage to her date with her precious Sasuke was ruined with Naruto and the Hyuuga girl coming along, but now she had to play nice with Sakura and her date?

"Is that alright with you two?" Sasuke didn't look at both Sakura and Shinji. Instead, his gaze was focused on Shinji's while Shinji's was also focused on Sasuke's. It seemed that whatever transpired between the two completely flew over everyone else's heads.

"Sure, why not," Shinji agreed. He turned toward Sakura, "Is that alright with you?"

Sakura looked at Shinji and then at Hinata, "Yeah sure, that's fine with me. What about you?"

Shinji shrugged, "I'm cool with it."

"Alright!" shouted Naruto, "Now that that's settled let's go have some fun!"

The group of six walked toward the amusement park gates. Sakura looked over her group, how did her date with Shinji end up with Naruto and Hinata on what seems to be their own date, Karin, who does not like Sakura…at all, oh, and let's not forget Sasuke, you know, the guy who rejected Sakura on Valentine's Day and is not trying to get over him?

Sakura sighed. Today was gonna be a long day for her.

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><p><strong>Wow...this chapter is a dosey huh? Let me know what you think in your reviews! Remember, review are always welcomed! Has anyone been reading Naruto Gaiden by the way? FINALLY! I thought Kishi was going to give me a heart attack! I never felt so overwhelmed by a manga before! Anyway, thanks for everything! <strong>


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